The Origin of Pokemon Trading Card and Why Both Adults and Children Are Addicted to Pocket Monster

Pokemon Addiction

Pokemon trading cards which is the shortening name for ¨Pocket Monster¨, come in a variety of colors and are rectangular in shape. Each card has a picture of a pokemon and information about said pokemon. This information includes name, horsepower and how to play the game. It also gives the length and weight of the pokemon. On the trading cards you can also find where the pokemon is present. Example: Zapdos trading cards are yellow. Zapdos has a horsepower of seventy, length of five feet, three inches and a weight of a hundred and sixteen pounds. This pokemon can be found wherever a lightning storm is present. To play one would flip a coin, if heads and if your opponent has any benched pokemon, choose one of them. If tails, Zapdos does thirty damage to itself.

In 1999, the pokemon trading cards were introduce to children in some part of the world. When I was twelve years old the pokemon trading game became my favorite game and means of making new friends. The cards have pictures of different Pokemon on them, such as Pikachu. The Pokemon are supposed to be "monsters" that have special powers and share the world with humans. The idea of the game is to have children learn how to collect as many Pokemon as possible, train them, and use them against other people's Pokemon by invoking the various abilities of each Pokemon creature. There are four basic trading cards, these are Pokemon cards which depict creatures that fight for you against other people's Pokemon, evolution cards depict Pokemon that are able to evolve into more powerful creatures, energy cards are united with other cards to give the Pokemon more energy needed in carrying out the trainer's orders and trainer cards are cards used one time and then discarded. Pokemon trading cards are very useful to children and they developed socialization skills and it motivates children to be apart of consumer culture world, without some of these children realizing that they are consumers.

Children are immersed in cultures of consumption such that every aspect of their lives is touched by buying, trading and selling. When I was twelve years old I developed a passion for pokemon trading cards which motivated me to become a consumer, without even realizing it. The Primary school she attended hosted a game show by the name of pokemon trading card. Which was held every last Friday of the month, this motivated her to traded Pokemon´s Nintendo games and her lunch money for Pokemon trading cards. This started with a small amount of her girlfriends and expanded across the school in both gender. According to Erikson, these consumers are between play age and adolescence (Erikson 1993). Children who took part in the consumer trading market at the school, ranges from ages seven to fifteen. This shows the consumerism attitude where the youth is influenced by their peers and children actions promotes buying and trading among each other.

Children who are involved in the consumer culture have developed something different from parental and school education. Charlene and her peers from different age groups and both genders have developed a formal education, which they learned through consumer culture. Key Concepts in Childhood Studies in the chapter ¨Children as Consumers¨ mentions Cook´s idea about the diversity of childhood and it enables the different wrought by gender, class and ethnicity to be acknowledged as core to childrenś subjective engagement with the commercial world¨. (James and James 22) There were a lot of childhood diversities among children at that time, who were involved in the trading market or consumer culture.

Children enjoy been apart of the consumer cultural world. Charlene used this idea to make new friends and developed a socialization bond that was missing at home. Pokemon became her lifeline. There were pokemon trading cards all over her room, in her school bag and in her desk at school. This shows how consumer culture can influences a child from different ages and genders in a positive way.