A study analyzed the effects of playing Pokemon Go, especially when driving instead of walking.
Last summer, Pokemon Go was the most downloaded game on both iPhone and Android devices. It had a great marketing boom, and thousands of people started playing it. Despite the fact that a lot of people were enjoying this game, others also seem to have gotten hurt in the process. Now, a new report shows some of the effects of Pokemon Go, and they are not good.
Don’t Pokemon Go and Drive
A working paper titled Death by Pokemon Go showed the adverse effects of playing this game. Two economists from the Purdue University looked at accident reports from the first 148 days after the game’s release. Their review is based on the accidents reported in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. The analysis shows that, in that county alone, the injuries, the two lives lost, and the damages cost more from $5.2 million, perhaps even up to $25.5 million.
When taking into consideration that this value is only for one county, the total amount for the entire US would result in a dangerously big number, warns the team. The economists suggested that the cost for the whole nation would have been between $2 billion and $7.3 billion. This value would have also been used over less than 150 days.
This new report shows that in the 148 days after Pokemon Go’s release, there were 286 additional crashes in this county when compared to the usual period. From these, 134 accidents were reported to have been near pokestops.
When the game was released, people were supposed to walk to pokestops and to gyms. A lot of people seem to have decided to drive to these places. Pokemon Go made it harder for people to drive to gyms, but they still tried and did it.
While the game was created to help people enjoy their time and walk more to catch ‘em all, some people decided to find an ‘easy way’ which seems to have led to more damage, at least in some cases.
Image Source: Pixabay
Share this:
