I saw lots of families, singles, pairs and groups yesterday playing Pokemon Go all over the city. Most of them seemed to have a lot of fun. To be honest, they seem to know more details about and get to more places in the city than non-players. And no, they didn't appear like "zombies" not aware their surrounding. They talked to each other, coordinated their efforts and so on. Kids age 6 or 7 had fun as well as 60+ year old.

Maybe you just have not much to talk about with your friend if he is more interested in playing Pokemon Go than a board game with you? Or you are so focussed on seeing Pokemon Go players wasting their time that it just appears to you that they are acting like zombies? Sure, there might be some players that are addicted, but I they are the majority of the Pokemon Go community.