Fads come and go, but nostalgia is forever — especially when it comes to Pokemon.
If you’re a Millennial, you’ll likely remember Pokemon as the addictive and immersive card game, television show, and video game series you watched and played with your friends as a kid. But now, with the new release of Pokemon Go, an augmented reality app that maintains similar features of the original Pokemon iteration, the past is now squarely in the present.
But playing a video game in a dark room is no longer the Pokemon user experience. The app now requires its users to go out into the world and actually search for Pokemon in their communities and at “Poke-Stops.”
And while Nintendo might be thrilled that its product has taken off like a rocket, employers might not be so delighted. If they thought that Instagram and Snapchat ate up too much of their employees’ work hours, they might shudder to hear just how much time users spend playing Pokemon Go. According to data collected by Similar Web, users spend an average of 43 minutes and 23 seconds playing Pokemon Go each day!
While it remains to be seen just how much staying power Pokemon Go has and how it will impact productivity in the workplace in the future, it’s clear that this game has struck a chord with Millennials, as well as their Gen Z successors.
What are your thoughts on Pokemon Go? Join the conversation on Twitter with @WhatTheGen or @JasonDorsey. And don’t forget to add your #generation!
