So it seemed somehow fitting, when, in July, so many of us took to the streets to become vigilanties.
Pokemon Go came and got people off their couches.
The idea was genius. Use digital mapping to create a kind of treasure hunt to capture Pokemon in and around people's local areas. Get people up and active and have them use their smartphones for a truly interactive experience.
Pokemon Go forced people to interact with one another. It made people socialise in a way that social networks have failed to. It brought about world peace... wait, that's not right.
But there was a brief moment this year, when all it took for people to take to the streets was something digital. Nothing political, no outcries, just good old fashioned gaming fun. And it seemed for a few weeks at least that the potential of technology could be used for something good.
But then came the other side of human nature.
You know, the one when people started using the game to lure people into danger. To rob them. Or those unfortunate, isolated instances when Pokemon just happened to be hiding in the vicinity of cadavers.
Man, those little Nintendo beasts did a better job of crime solving than Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote.
And eventually, with it, the wane in popularity. But only after Japan had reminded the world how superior it was in respect to every other country in the world.