wearmanyhats:

hwun:

bugartist:

lesbianshepard:

i keep thinking about how pokemon go is probably driving baby boomers up the fucking wall. packs of millennials roaming all staring at their cellphones. 

to answer ur question

yes

In my city, the downtown area had been very slowly making a comeback. It was a holdover from its small town days with nice wide sidewalks and wrought iron streetlamps, an area of small shops and cafes and restaurants and made for leisurely foot traffic. It had lain fallow for ages up until about ten years ago, when the city renovated the whole street in an effort to revitalize downtown, shop fronts and all. Looks fantastic, charming and welcoming. But half the shops are still empty. It only really pulled a decent amount of customers on the weekends due to a nice pizza place, a comic shop, and a spa. Okay, but not ideal.

Enter Pokémon Go.

I’ve gone downtown almost every evening since release and each night there’s easily 100-200 people roving around. Along the shop fronts, back behind on the bank overlooking the historic spillway, playing barefoot down in the shallow creek itself, gathering around the old fountain. There’s six Pokestops and two gyms. Lure modules get plugged in left and right and you can almost walk the entire length of downtown and not be out of reach of at least one Stop at any point.

Just about every demographic you can think of is represented. I’ve seen all ages, races, genders. And the majority of us aren’t just smooshfaced into our phone screens oblivious to other people and the world around us. People talk to each other. STRANGERS talk to and laugh with each other. Knowing grins are flashed around. I HAD CASUAL FRIENDLY CONVERSATIONS WITH STRANGERS, Y'ALL, I DON’T EVER DO THAT. Occasionally a car drives by blasting ~ I WANNA BE ~ THE VERY BEST ~ and the pedestrians nearby whoop and laugh without a shred of mockery. People yell out alerts when a rarer Pokemon shows up. Everyone’s in good spirits, plain and simple. It’s fucking magical, this lowkey ongoing block party.

The pizza place and the other couple restaurants are doing crazy business. I’ve never seen them so consistently full. The comic shop offers any Go player 10% off all Pokemon merch. And last night I noticed a couple of the empty shops had “coming soon” signs in their windows in place of the “for lease” signs.

On a more personal note, I don’t get along great with my dad. But then he saw me catch a Bellsprout in the living room. Ten minutes later he and I were taking a walk together down the road to the nearest Pokestop and chatting like we were family or something. Now he texts me a couple times a day to brag about what he’s caught or ask how to use an item.

So. Anyone poo-poo'ing on this game can kiss my Bulbasaur.