My Pokemon World - An introduction

I started writing today's post this morning on the bus into NYC amidst the worst traffic jam I have seen this summer. I passed a car fire and was stuck outside of the Lincoln Tunnel for over half an hour (two separate incidents). Nonetheless, I decided to start this week's group of posts off with a tribute to one of the most significant games of my life: Pokemon.
Everyone who knew me as a kid (and some who know me now) know of my childhood obsession with the Pokemon world. I would watch the show every morning before school, battle with my friends during recess, watch some more in the afternoon, and in between all of this find some time to play the actual game. While my original intention was to just discuss the game (the original Red and Blue versions), I quickly realized that Pokemon was more than just a Game Boy game, and to leave out Pokemon in its other forms would be dismissing
During my Pokemon phase, I would frequently hear from people older than me how Pokemon took up too much of my time, and how I should spend more time doing something else, anything else. Up until recently, I would have agreed; for many years I went along with the idea that Pokemon never taught me anything, and that I did waste those two or three years when I could have been doing something more worthwhile (I know I am being vague, but that is only because I am not really sure what I would have done otherwise). Now, however, I feel that I can justify that those hours battling gym leaders and memorizing type strengths/weaknesses taught me some real life skills. Last week, I finished reading the book Everything Bad is Good For You by Steven Johnson. He goes on to argue that the public is too quick to dismiss popular culture and the mediums that carry it (video games, television, the internet) as the reasons behind our society's decline. On the contrary, he argues that these forms of media are training our brains in different but just as important ways as do books. I planned on discussing this topic all in one post, but since it is after 10 and I have to be up at 5:30, I have decided to break the topic up into segments and post them periodically. Rest assured, I will not purely focus on Pokemon; I will mix them into my posts covering other topics. Since I deemed this post an introduction, I will post again tomorrow where I will begin to dive into my observations. Until tomorrow, good night!