While studies emerged previously about how Pokemon GO was actually beneficial for mental health, as it forced more people to go outside and to interact with other people and get over their social anxieties, a new argument suggests that Pokemon GO is actually messing up our brains.
This is according to Elan Barenholtz, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University who claims that the effect of playing Pokemon GO is similar to how drugs work. According to Barenholtz, “We’re messing around with giving ourselves stimulants and feedback that we’ve never encountered before. And just like drugs, you never know where this is going to go.”
This effect is reportedly stronger than other video games as the inclusion of real-life and going into the real world has an impact.
“When you’re going out and running around in an environment and you’re getting the video game feedback at the same time, you’re now recruiting a much richer representation, your brain is now sort of falling for it in a much deeper way, even though you know cognitively it’s fake.”
“But, there’s a good chunk of your brain that buys them. I think you’re going to buy them more deeply now, so that should make the reward that much more compelling and that much more addictive.”
Moderation is probably the best way to go.