Wagner-Greene, Victoria. 2017. Pokémon GO: Healthy or Harmful?

Wagner-Greene, V. (2017, January). Pokémon GO: Healthy or Harmful? Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1853308592?pq-origsite=summon

Wagner-Greene et al. conduct and discuss research on whether the popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go is beneficial or detrimental to society. In their research they found that 27% of Pokémon Go players had driving as their preferred mode of travel while playing the game, 32% preferred to walk, and 43% chose to play the game while biking. A whopping 38% of players said that they would sacrifice their sleep to play the game (Wagner-Greene et al. 2017). In addition to these findings, participants in the study “were asked how many days per week they engaged in 30 or more minutes of physical activity before downloading Pokémon GO and then after starting to play it” (Wagner-Greene et al. 2017). At the start of the study, only 31% of the participants fit the activity requirements while at the end the amount increased to 75% of participants fitting the requirements.

This journal does not focus on the methodology as much as it does the results. The results were gathered by survey of 662 adults. The research did not mention the age or gender of the participants. The participants all came from various unspecified areas. After the results were collected it is likely that that the researchers compared the positive and negative effects by which of the two seemed more prominent in the community. One problem with this study is the pros and cons list that is being compared is extremely short. Only 2 different things are being compared. It is mentioned, however, that augmented reality games, such as Pokémon Go, are the number one cause for car accidents along with texting and driving.

Many of the other research papers written about Pokémon Go focus on if the game has a positive impact on the community. This journal discusses the negative effects as well with a neutral stance on the situation. If the researchers had also took into consideration other positive and negative effects then a more conclusive answer could be made.



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