Tateno, M. 2016. New game software (Pokémon Go) may help youth with severe social withdrawal, hikikomori

Tateno, M., Skokauskas, N., Kato, T. A., Teo, A. R., & Guerrero, A. P. (2016, December 30). New game software (Pokémon Go) may help youth with severe social withdrawal, hikikomori. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5573581/

This scientific journal written by the combined efforts of Tateno, Skokauskas, Kato, Teo, and Guerrero, explains how hikikomori, or severe social withdrawal, is connected to the popular augmented reality game, Pokémon Go. In Japan, 230,000 people are reportedly categorized as hikikomori (Koyama et al., 2010). This extreme social withdrawal epidemic could be fixed with something as simple as leaving your room for a couple hours to go catch some Pokémon.

Although there is no for sure way to tell how many Pokémon Go players in Japan are hikikomori, the prime minister of Japan vouched for the game as helping people deal with their withdrawal problem. They also suggest setting up PokeStops at hikikomori support centers to increase the chances of the problem slimming down. Teteno et al. also explain how the achievements in the game could contribute to helping people with ADHD gain self esteem with each achievement they unlock.

This journal in many ways can be tied to the paper written by Lee Humphries titled: “Involvement shield or social catalyst: Thoughts on sociospatial practice of Pokémon GO”. Humphries work describes how Pokémon Go can get people off their couch and out of the house. In the case of hikikomori, instead of laziness being the battle to overcome before leaving the house, the problem is avoiding social situations. Pokémon Go just might be able to get people out of the house no matter what is stopping them.

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