Humphreys, L. (2016, December 9). Involvement shield or social catalyst: Thoughts on sociospatial practice of Pokémon GO. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2050157916677864 

Humphreys acknowledges the rise of people leaving their couches to go outside and catch Pokémon with their friends. While she emphasizes that the game is not comparable to social networking applications, she does mention how it can contribute to increased social activity. They also mentions, however, that augmented reality games, such as Pokémon Go, can actually be a detriment to social situations. Instead of paying attention to the people around you, the pocket monsters popping up on your screen grasp your full attention.

In this particular paper, Humphreys does not detail a research study on people, instead focusing on what the problem could be and how to fix it. Since we already established that Pokémon Go could lead to a lack of social interaction, regardless of the player’s physical position and proximity to others, we can now find ways to prevent that problem with the game’s future use. One great way offered to fix the antisocial aspects of the game is: “Pokémon GO maps could be a lens to highlight the ways players and bystanders are technologically and infrastructurally brought together and pushed apart” (Humphreys 2016). Using the maps to include some sort of social aspect could lead to not only better physical health for players, but social health as well.

The Pokémon Go wave hit very hard but for many, the hype did not last. After a while, it seemed to become a dead game. The inclusion of more social based tasks and challenges would not only increase overall satisfaction with current users, but it could also lead to new or previous players to get involved with the trend. This journal could contribute to the growing research about whether or not Pokémon Go is detrimental to people who play.


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