Tamagotchi Made Us Antisocial
How a pocket-sized pet destroyed society
Because the trauma of grieving the death of a childhood pet was either not painful enough or too short-lived, Akihiro Yokoi divined a technical solution: An electronic pet with all the fixings of the real deal — sporadic outbursts, dietary needs, the works — with the added bonus of a drastically shortened lifespan.
That way, a child could experience the death of a pet every 12 days of so rather than every 12 years. Brilliant! Surprised Peter Thiel hasn’t come up with his own mechanism for inducing acute childhood misery.
Ok, maybe Yokoi’s Tamagotchi wasn’t exactly the form of corporal punishment I described above. After all, it was one of the most successful and well-remembered toys of the ‘90s.
Assuming most already know the Tamagotchi, either from personal experience or cultural memory, I’ll just provide a brief description courtesy of the Smithsonian:
“Tamagotchi was programmed to evolve in response to the player’s caretaking decisions. The device would beep at real-time intervals, demanding that the player feed, clean up and even discipline the pet. Proper parenting would result in a well-mannered adult Tamagotchi, while inattention would result in a delinquent. And just like a real animal, if ignored, a Tamagotchi would…
