Pokemon Go.

[oak]

I don't identify much with "addiction", but I certainly recognize "compulsion".

I really enjoy Pokemon Go, but I realize I am making choices I ordinarily wouldn't make.

Just this week I:

1. Stood in a very bad neighborhood to take a gym for Team Valor.

2. Crossed a very busy road to get a sponsored gym badge.

3. Made my friend wait while I completed a raid against Magikarp.

4. Was late to a doctor's appointment by knocking a 1500 CP Vapereon out of a Mystic gym.

5. Hurt my troubled knee from overuse by going for just one more swing around the Pokestops. I "needed" berries to get a silver gym badge.

6. Stayed up late grinding Eevee's so I could evolve an Umbreon.

7. Sort of trespassed to add a Blissey to a Team Valor gym.

I realize when I am being programmed by corporate America: just like gambling or drug pushers, they give me a good Pokemon just often enough to keep coming back. The first thing I do each morning is catch a Pokemon to keep my streak going. They know the power of intermittent rewards, and they are playing me.

Pokemon, like many vices, makes for a good servant but a poor master.