What hurts, Pikachu? Physical symptoms in Pokémon Go players

Abstract

Individuals usually benefit from Pokémon Go gaming because this mobile video game provides an attractive opportunity for increased outdoor physical activity and socializing. However, based on prior studies on gaming and electronic media use, excessive Pokémon Go involvement is likely to be related to adverse phenomena such as mental problems (smartphone addiction and phubbing), pain (in neck, arms, and legs), and eye-related problems (dry eye and impaired focusing). We expected that excessive Pokémon Go players would exhibit stronger mental and physical symptomatology. Pokémon Go players (N = 450) completed an online survey reporting Pokémon Go addiction symptoms, smartphone addiction symptoms, phubbing habits, time spent playing Pokémon Go, pain, and eye problems. We also controlled for overall use of other electronic media. We found that individuals with higher levels of Pokémon Go addiction reported more pain and more problems with vision. Increased smartphone addiction and phubbing partially mediated these effects. This study contributes to a balanced perspective on the biopsychosocial outcomes of health behaviors gamification via mobile video games.

Oh, no, Pokémon GO! Media panic and fear of mobility in news coverage of an augmented reality phenomenon

“…The game may undermine players' safety and welfare, and constitute a threat to the protection of children (Serino et al, 2016). Potentially harmful social effects include addiction, and physiological disorders (muscular pain and eye-related problems) stemming from continuous, excessive gaming (Kaczmarek et al, 2019).…”

Pi-kaPika: A qualitative study for trainer-owned Pokémon

“…The ndings promoted these insights: that daily physical activity could be maintained at high level if players could keep playing this game, such physical movement might act as an exercise habit in a daily routine; and the game could motivate those players to walk more than before. Nevertheless, other studies had differing perceptions and negative outcomes related to smartphone users including eye, musculoskeletal discomfort, etc [38,61]. A signi cant nding of this study was that the integration of community was established in the context of LBG design.…”

A descriptive literature review of phubbing behaviors

“…(2019) “Phubbing refers to adverse behavior that occurs in social situations when individuals maintain their focus on their mobile phones at the expense of a reduced focus on the interlocutor who may feel ignored or snubbed” (p.7). Kaczmarek et al. (2019) .…”