But the teenager marching along the footpath near the ocean doesn’t see any of it.

She’s looking down. Into the palm of her hand. At an iPhone.

She’s hunting computerised creatures. She dare not stop. Otherwise someone else will snatch her prize.

Pokemon GO has taken grip of the South Coast – and the rest of the world.

Police report drivers playing the game while navigating their cars.

Gamers admit to trespassing in order to trap cyber prey, or stepping on to roads without noticing, or walking kilometres to “hatch eggs”.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports “chaos in New York” as hundreds scramble into Central Park in the pursuit of a rare Pokemon.

And an Eden psychologist – who requests anonymity – arrives at the Opera House to discover the steps crowded with gamers “transfixed to their devices” with the iconic building just another Pokemon ‘gym’.

“Part of me thought the camaraderie was OK,” the psychologist said, “but the other part of me thought ‘get a life’.”

So what life are we heading towards, Pokemon people?

In schools, our children are now rewarded for their good behaviour with points won in avatar kingdoms.

In our homes, our children beg for devices, sit still in corners with only their fingers moving, argue daily about screen time, and view a parent’s coaxing to “play” or “draw” as punishment. 

“We’re becoming a cyber people, and being connected in a cyber way is a short cut to finding a deeper sense of meaning and significance and security,” warned the Eden psychologist.

Maybe in this war torn world, an escape into virtual reality is tonic for the soul and just innocent fun.

But maybe games such as these serve a more insidious purpose – grand experiments in rendering humans into robots, obediently following technology-generated instructions, compelled via a device to travel kilometres and gather where told.

Let’s go looking for birds or whales. They’re as hard to find as Pokemon. But at least they’re real.