Pokemon

Many people might not notice, but the media exerts a big influence on people, especially children. Think back on your childhood and your favorite kinds of symbolic play (pretend play or roleplaying), and how the different media (TV shows, websites, etc.) shaped the way you carried out the play session. Let me provide your with a personal example. When I was approximately five to six years old, my favorite past time, whether alone or with my friends, was to indulge myself with anything related to Pokemon. I was an avid watcher of the Pokemon television show as well as a passionate collector of Pokemon cards. Occasionally, I would play the Pokemon Gameboy video game. My favorite time with Pokemon, however, was engaging in role play, most of the time with my slightly-younger family friends, Austin and Aaron, who made frequent weekend visits. In recollection, we would act accordingly to different characters and Pokemon creatures from the cartoon show, but we also used our imagination to expand beyond. Sometimes I would be Professor Oak, the knowledgeable Pokemon scientist in the quest of updating my Pokedex, an electronic handheld Pokemon index dictionary represented by my drawings on paper or imaginatively. We would sometimes conduct “research” on various Pokemon, creating sketches of the newly discovered ones, and sometimes also gathering all of our Pokemon toys and cards as props to set up our “Pokemon laboratory research facility” within my room. When we would leave our “laboratory” to go explore the wilderness, catch Pokemon, as well as battle evil enemies, our role within the sociodramatic play session may change. For example, I would change my role of Professor Oak to playing my Austin’s Pikachu in battle. We would set up a “fort” outside my room to distinguish between research and exploration sessions, or in case there are “intruders”, substituted by stuffed animals, random furniture or our parents, who we treated as our ultimate enemies in the game.
The Pokemon show established a particular context that interested me and illuminated certain aspects of social culture, science and technology that I would’ve never thought of exploring in my sheltered six-year-old life. Despite providing a general premise for the schemas, scripts and characters in my own narrative (scenarios and storylines composed during play), the Pokemon show stimulated my imagination beyond my independent capability and bestowed me with proper intellectual resources to structure my narratives and play. Through my role play sessions, I was simultaneously exploring my identity, placing myself in various imagined contexts to see how I fit in.