Watching Pokémon was a given in the late 90s and early 2000s and now the franchise has revived its world influence by launching its mobile game Pokémon Go. Social media is inundated with tips and screenshots, everyone’s faces are glued to their phones and TEENs are even going outside and walking around (gasp). The mobile game has local TEENs heading up to UWI and UTech (we hear there are a couple Pokéstops there), stopping by church on random weekday mornings and circling parks trying to catch Pokémon. We’ve even seen social media posts about people turning up at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And some dedicated hunters even have Whatsapp groups and long threads of texts about the game.

Here’s how it works: Pokémon Go uses your phone’s GPS and clock to detect where and when you are in the game and make Pokémon “appear” around you on your phone screen so you can go and catch them. As you move around, different Pokémon will appear depending on where you are and what time it is. The idea is to encourage you to travel around the real world to catch Pokémon in the game. Pokémon Go is an example of highly successful augmented reality technology, and it is believed that more games and apps will try to mimic its success.

Shares in the media franchise are believed to have gone up by at least 13% since the augmented reality game’s launch this month. So we’ll go out on a limb here and say it’s a really big deal.

TEENs are encouraged to be vigilant and cautious even when catching Pokémon as internationally there is a rising trend in robberies being committed under the guise of helping victims to catch Pokémon. And all the usual cautions related to regular cell phone and app usage apply as well – do not cross roadways or operate motor vehicles while actively trying to catch Pokémon. (PS: government officials, hospital and medical personnel and those in the security forces still need to carry out their jobs even if you really, really want to catch Pokémon so let’s give them their space.) You might be a great Pokémon hunter by virtue of the magic of augmented reality but those guys hunt real life bad guys, save lives and make sure real world problems are solved and they crave our cooperation in keeping things in check.