Virtual insanity bug is catching

If all of your friends told you to jump off a cliff – would you? No? What about if your Pokémon took you there?

Last week, two boys in San Diego did exactly this – plummeting more than 50ft while trying to “catch em’ all”.

Pokémon Go is a game taking the world by storm, seeing more daily users than Twitter.

Players open the app on their phone and a digital character walks where they walk.

They then search for virtual creatures in real-life locations.

The premise – to get people outside and moving to find pocket monsters – is great.

However, the lengths some are going to because of it is not.

Four boys in Wiltshire found themselves stuck in caves more than 100ft underground after going hunting; three students were robbed at knifepoint in Manchester while playing; and several phone calls were made to Nottinghamshire Police reporting suspicious activity – all of which turned out to be Pokémon Go users.

Have I missed something – or have we gone completely mad?

“Somebody stole my Pokémon,” a quivering voice nervously says.

“Why is that a 999 call?”, a handler asks the clearly distressed woman.

This almost epitomises the last week of pandemonium hitting the UK since the phone application was launched.

This is a game, nothing more and nothing less. It should not be wasting the emergency service’s time and it should not be putting people in danger.

A man also posted a picture from a hospital delivery room of him catching a Pidgey while his wife was in labour – why, I hear you ask? I questioned it too.

It speaks volumes for our virtually obsessed generation.

Perhaps it’s time to look at life’s priorities and place a phone app slightly closer to the bottom of the list.