Get a Job

A couple of weeks ago we went over a list of summer distractions in the form of crazes.  We decided this year’s leader was the kayak.  We were wrong.

Back some years, kids world-wide were agog with cards, little disks, and stickers that sported characters in the children’s world of Pokémon.

Today, however, things have become hi-tech with the advent of the Pokémon Go app for cellular phones and tablets.

It would appear as though the longing for the Pokémon cards and games of yore have been reincarnated for the smartest generation in history.

This Pokémon Go app is a reality, location-based mobile game for people with too much time on their hands.

Back when I was a kid between school years, I spent my summers with a phone stuck on a wall in the kitchen, and I had a job.  If this Pokémon Go stuff was available then, I’d be too out of touch to compete.

In any case, the smartest generation in history is actively engaging in spending this summer toting their precious cell phone about, eyes glued to the screen, wandering apparently aimlessly about the planet.

Aha!  They are not, though.  Pokémon Go provides electronic clues that lead game-players about the countryside, being led there by characters superimposed on their phone screens.

This sort of e-scavenger hunt demands participants attempt to use those appendages called “legs” to actually walk from location-to-location in attempt to follow the Pokémon Go characters.  Winners receive e-coins that are pretty much valueless to anyone needing food, rent, or tuition money, though.

The good news is that the world’s smartest generation in history are actually learning to breathe outdoor air and getting to exercise limbs other than their thumbs.

The bad news is, just like those dangerous kayaks from a few weeks ago, Pokémon Go also introduces an element of danger to life.

Clever street thugs have already figured a way to include their own real-world landmarks into the Pokémon Go game.  This makes for easy takings when the avid, unsuspecting game players haplessly wander into pre-designed remote traps and are summarily relieved of their valuables.

Now, they are not only proven nerds but, they are proven nerds without cell phones and cash.  They would have been better off getting that pesky summer job, eh?

Alas, we arrive at the really dangerous part of the world’s smartest generation in history engaging in Pokémon Go competition.  Over the past few days – remember this app was just unveiled in July 2016 – several people have died while conducting their critical e-scavenger hunts.

One player was stabbed by a group of men in a California park while playing Pokémon Go.  And, two men fell off a bluff while playing the game, also in The Golden State. 

Thank God these folks are representative of the world’s smartest generation in history.  Just imagine what trouble my generation would have gotten us into.