It would seem that a great number of impressionable teenagers and young adults, no doubt unhappy with their own lives, have taken to believing in "digital friends"--artificial creatures in electronic toys. Many of these toys can be connected to your personal computers--and from there, the Internet--to make them seem more real. These toys are usually based on popular series like Pokémon or Digimon.

This, in and of itself, is harmless, except on a social level, where these social outcasts would rather, more and more, connect with artificial "buddies" than to real people.

There are also people out there who believe that they are the reincarnations of fairies, dragons, and even anime and video game characters. This, while bizarre and--to me and many others--distasteful, is also harmless.

However, there are communities who are feeding into the impressionable minds of the young, trying to make them believe that these creatures are real.

They are even going so far as to suggest methods of bringing these creatures into our world. While they seem rather harmless at first, keep in mind that if enough who believe gather together and perform a ritual, their belief can cause something--not necessarily what they want--to manifest itself.

...

I'm sorry. I can't help this part.

Kid: "PIKACHU! I CHOOSE YOU!"
Summoned Dybbuk: "PIIIKAAAA--*munch*"

Alright, I can't argue your point about vampires... It's very possible that the "Vampire: the Masquerade" craze was started by a vampire, with the intent of romanticizing them, making impressionable teenagers want to be vampires...

However, on the point of all other monsters... I think most people can tell the difference between the cute and fuzzies and the real things--which are almost never cute *or* fuzzy. For every TV show or movie that romanticizes these things or makes them attractive, we have two movies that portray them in a negative, horrifying, not-cute-and-fuzzy sort of light.

I'm sure if we had another, better word for it, they would've used it instead of "monsters" when they created things like "Pokémon" and "Digimon". However, "Pocket Creatures" just doesn't have the same ring to it, and wouldn't have marketed as well, and you know as well as I do that that's the driving force behind the manufacturers' reasoning.

If one kid thinks that a werebeast is a cute and fuzzy friend, there's something wrong with him to begin with. I would say that's less the fault of the "monsters are cute" TV shows and more the product of "animals are our fuzzy friends" movement by well-meaning but ultimately damaging groups such as PETA.

Note: I have nothing against most vegetarians, but many Vegans take things too far, and a lot of times become more militant in their activities, organizing into such groups as PETA, and damaging the psyches of kids aged five and under with their "unhappy meals".

I grew up with Sesame Street and the Muppets... I loved Pokémon and Digimon in high school... Now I've been fighting vampires, malevolent spirits, and demons... If I saw a werewolf in an alleyway, I would run and pray to all that's holy for a way to protect myself, not run up and try to give it a hug...

Honestly, all the hype is just that: Hype...

It's more than just something wrong with the kid, from a very young age children are being bombarded with images of monsters as friendly and cute - the constant exposure can and will dull their wits.

Perhaps thats the entire point.

It had to happen sooner or later.

And I've always blamed the whole fascination with Japanese culture for those "mon" things. Anything foreign and fascinating can capture people's attention easily.

It wasn't Japanese culture that drew me into Pokémon when I was in school... At first, I thought they were stupid. Then I borrowed one of my brother's games, back on the original Gameboy. The entire first hour I played it, I was muttering to myself how lame and stupid the whole thing was. When I finally set the game down, I was astonished to find that three more hours had passed, and I wanted to play more.

Aside from the word "monster", I still don't see any similarity between Pokémon (and the other "mon"'s) and bogey men, zombies, vampires, Dybbuks, or anything else...

Updates: The Pokémon one is a joke, after looking further into it... The Digimon site got its forum hacked and shut down.

How convenient.

Hey Caliburn, I can see that you and I have worked opposite sides of the coin for too long to agree on much beyond stopping harmfull paranormals.

If you think that someone is going to mistake a bogeyman for oscar the grouch (even they do both live in trash cans, stink, and have surly dispositions) or a hell-hound or boschla for some other cutesy show-biz monster, then either you don't have a brain, or you think that you are the only one who does have one.

Now games like "Vampire the masquerade" and "Werewolf", along with several other games that go for a gritty feel, they cause some identification problems now and again, as well as a misjudgement of the threats posed.



I suppose that if a lycan painted it's fur red, bathed so that it did not smell so fould, and then started to speak with a childish lisp, it might cause a particularly young victim 2-4 to misidentify it as "Elmo" and get a meal that way.