I Don't Play Pokemon Go, But Find Its Impact Amusing

Via Daniel Watts, on Facebook:

One of my friends works at the company that created Pokemon Go. Someone posted this on his timeline today:

"At lunch, as I'm texting my wife on my way to my car, a woman and her 13ish-year-old son stop me. "Pokemon Go?" said the mother.

"Oh. No." I said.

"Oh ..." she trailed off, disappointed. Then, only momentarily deterred as I started to turn around to continue my path to the parking lot, she continued "Do you have kids?" I turned back towards her "I - I do." And she beamed.

"Mom, there's a Rattata ..."

"You go ahead, I can see you, I'll catch up."

"Listen," she continued. "You need to get your kids this game. I thought I was losing him, I really did. And now, look at us! We're going for walks together! Long walks! I walked six miles yesterday! WALKING! I mean, he's losing weight and I'm losing weight and we're getting HEALTHY! Exercising!

And the best part is, we talk about things. Not just Pokemon but actual other things. You know, I don't even know the last time we actually talked about anything. And here he is, he's a teenager now and I thought, well there he'll go being a teenager and that'll be it and I'll have lost him, and now, because of this silly game, we're TALKING again."

She paused, having worked herself up and smiled expectantly.

"My girls are only four and two," I laughed. "But I'm really, genuinely happy for you."

"MOM!" the son called out from down the breezeway.

"Well, I hope this game is still around when your girls are old enough!"

And she waved and jogged off to her waiting son.
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It's so odd to have been approached this way. This woman that I had never seen before in my life, was so overwhelmed with happiness at this moment, over this game, that she needed to stop someone, anyone, a random stranger, and tell him about it."