Charlotte Gill

Pokémon Go is a symbol of Generation Y’s worst trait

Pokémon Go makes me wonder about Generation Y, which will surely be remembered as one of the most childish collectives of all time. I am part of this contingent of people born in the 1980s and 1990s – the offspring of the baby boomers – characterised as a digitally-savvy cohort, among other things.

We have been an incredibly lucky lot, thrust into a technological renaissance of sorts – where computing breakthroughs take place all the time. But in spite of this evolution, young people have slowed down. We have become self-indulgent, silly and reluctant to grow up. We are the Peter Pan Generation.

At least, that’s what the mobile game Pokémon Go suggests to me, which invites people to trawl the streets with their phones for imaginary characters. Pokémon, if you didn’t know, is a huge Nintendo franchise, created in the nineties.

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