I am no trendsetter.
It took me 4 years to get my first iPhone. I still don’t willingly take selfies. And the next Uber ride I take will be my first.
Yes, I’m old school — a fact that makes my life difficult when I’m trying to buy Nike sneakers that don’t look like a Smurf vomited all over them or a t-shirt that doesn’t belong on Jersey Shore. I choose text messaging over Snapchat, cable over cord-cutting and the gym over a Gluten-free diet.
Why do I live according to the way it was, instead of the way it is? It ain’t for the money; if I’d cut out cable, I might have actually saved me quite a few bucks. It ain’t in honor of Scrooge; it’s too warm to be going around yelling “Bah, Humbug.”
No, it’s because I want to avoid the mob.
Not the Corleone family. The throngs of people losing their minds over the next big trend.
Trendhopping is the national pastime of Millennials — a group I grudgingly am lumped in with by age association alone. It’s how we ended up with Snapchat, Tinder and nonsensical analogies like “Netflix and Chill” (c’mon y’all, it’s barely got anything to do with either one).
Now, trendiness is nothing new. It’s how culture has moved forward over the years (or, in some cases, backward). But it’s a whole new ballgame today. The Internet now allows trends to go viral almost instantaneously, with a vocal Millennial core ready and willing to aggressively usher society into compliance with it.
Look at the recent Pokemon Go craze. In a matter of days, it went from being something outside the realm of our wildest imagination to an activity seemingly everyone was doing.
Much like Evangelicals, Pokemon Go fans boisterously extolled the virtues of the game (“Now the Pokemon craze can cross the generation gap!” “Now we have an excuse to be active and play outside again!.”) while drowning out any concerns raised by the few not playing (including a massive drain on phone battery life and the negative repercussions of continually burying one’s head in a screen while in a public forum).
As a marketer, I find Pokemon Go appealing, even though I’ve never played any form of Pokemon. The combination of a universally accessible product, generation-gapping nostalgia and instant superfans was a home run for Nintendo.
That said, I find mob mentality around the game to be gravely concerning. For even though a fired up fan base obsessed over the next big thing might see no harm in trying to spread the word to the masses like religious zealots, this type of aggressive peer pressure threatens our diversity of thoughts, actions and beliefs. It makes our society homogeneous, and not far removed from our enemies.
“Preposterous!” these evangelical fans might say. “For the platforms, games and technologies we’re pushing are for good, not for evil.”
But the notions of good and evil are subjective. Most God-fearing people have a good grasp as to which actions belong to each quality, but that perspective can be easily manipulated. And if twisted ideals are indoctrinated into a zealous mob of supporters, unspeakable horrors can commence.
Now, I’m not suggesting that the rise of trends like Pokemon Go will turn America into another Axis of Evil, but I can see some unsettling parallels. The continuous rally to get people to join in the craze because “it’s what everyone’s doing” and the lack of regard given to conscientious objectors within the game’s considerably large path are frighteningly similar to the behaviors of authoritarian societies.
I bring this up because the issues the mob of Pokemon Go supporters drown out are actually quite significant — particularly since the game is played in the realm of the real world. There are already multiple reports of people gathering in public parks at dusk to “go hunting,” kids walking through busy neighborhood streets looking for Pokemon and teenagers blindly following their phones into private property — all ill-advised, dangerous ideas. I’ve venheard of an armed robbery facilitated by the game, as well as a serious car-pedestrian crash.
Yet, even in the face of such significant imperfections, supporters of the Pokemon Go trend are all too willing to sweep these issues under the rug — which only serves to lead countless other players into the path of danger. The mob mentality strikes again.
This behavior must end.
We must respect the voices of those who spend their days avoiding the mob. Whether we’re discussing politics, sports or Pokemon Go, we must leave a place for opposing viewpoints. Dissent is not insubordination in a democracy; if anything, it builds tools that can vastly improve the cause the majority is trumpeting. If Pokemon Go fanatics had listened to dissent, we wouldn’t have people falling off ledges trying to “Catch Em All.” The game would be better, and far safer.
So hop on that latest trend. Play Pokemon Go. Buy that new smartphone. Watch the show everyone’s talking about.
But be respectful of dissent. Don’t join the mob.