It's hard to believe how big Pokémon Go was when it first started. Back then over 25 million players picked up their phones and went out on their own Pokémon journey. For the first time in modern history, kids were leaving the house, adults were traveling the world, and even old people joined in the adventure to... play videogames! It seemed that for a while there Nintendo could do no wrong, and then it started happening. Rumors started popping up of people getting into accidents because of Pokémon Go as they weren't paying attention to the roads. The very first one of these rumors, unsurprisingly turned out to be false.
During July 8th 2016 a hoax article started circling the web, and eventually caught fire. The article spoke of a man who was hit while in a motorcycle off a bridge while playing Pokémon Go, but this in fact is not true. The original was actually a Spanish news article from a Mexican news source. The reality of the situation was simply that a drunk driver hit a motorbike on their way to their home. The driver of the motorcycle did not survive the crash and was actually killed by the negligence of the perpetrator. While it was indeed a very sad event, Pokémon Go was not responsible for the situation.
http://sipse.com/milenio/muere-motociclista-al-caer-de-puente-merida-progreso-198702.html
This did not prevent rumors from spreading like wildfire and the news caught on quickly. People all over social media were posting about the dangers of Pokémon Go, and how it would cause the end of society everywhere. But, here we are almost a year later and nothing has changed. In less than a month Pokémon Go lost more than half its player base and interest quickly passed as the latest fad was over. While it still has plenty of players the numbers have certainly dropped (and not simply off bridges). Still, it's interesting to see how easily people fall for these sort of viral "news".
Interestingly enough two men did fall off a cliff while playing Pokémon Go, and this one turned out not to be a joke. I guess people weren't very mindful of their surroundings after all...
nice post @dashthebomber
Thank you! I didn't know if anyone remembered this event, but it was crazy over at my job, everyone wanted to tell each other of the situation. But, it turns out it never happened.