A group of young men in long shorts and oversize hoodies shuffled past. None of them were looking at each other or where they were going. They were focused on their phones.

“The gym is too far. It only has a hundred now. I gotta get it up to at least 2,000.”

Two minutes later a father and his preschool-age son came wandering past, the two of them staring at a phone. “It’s right there, Daddy!” the boy squealed.

“Mommy has to get you your own phone,” the father said and sighed.

Less than a minute passed before another group of people came through, all of them staring at their phones, all of them blissfully oblivious to real life while they captured on-screen animated characters and hunted for a virtual gym to gain more points.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Americans play Pokemon Go while the country is battered by inequity, violence and fear.

In Iwilei, where the bounty of Costco is just steps away from the apocalyptic horror of the most hard-core homeless, I watched Pokemon-chasing teams walk mesmerized in their own world while sidestepping the filthy real one.

If you are one of the few who has not downloaded the Pokemon Go app to your iPhone or figured out why phone-wielding children are suddenly wandering around your neighborhood, all you need to know is that it’s a virtual reality game that, in just the last few days since its release, has become so popular that in any given community you can find people running around outside playing the game. Kekaha. Kahuku. Kahului. It’s everywhere. The app uses Google Maps and the phone’s camera to make it look like animated characters are appearing in the real world. All this takes place on the phone’s screen, but the game tells players where to go to find more Pokemon characters.

It sounds complicated but players say it’s quite addicting. I heard one young woman happily confess that she had gone to Magic Island at 2 in the morning because the game told her to. Now there is a wish fulfilled — having someone to tell you where to go to get what you want. No wonder it’s so addicting. Real life doesn’t work that way.

The app was released at a time so ripe for willful diversion. It is becoming harder to face what’s happening in the real world: the troubles overseas, the racial division across this country, the lack of visionary leaders, from the presidential race to local elections, the fiasco of Honolulu’s rail project and the homeless situation that no one has any idea how to cure.

How do you live in a world where it’s easier to give up than to keep going? Pokemon Go is the new opiate for the masses, where the rules are simple, social interaction is minimal and the imagery represents a return to a more youthful outlook. No wonder so many choose virtual reality in a time of harsh reality.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.