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I know I'm way behind on this because these little things have been out for seven or eight years. But there is apparently a craze among kids here these days and my daughter just succeeded in obtaining a tamagotchi via her grandmother.
Typically we play with our toys and always have. We initiate and control the "when" of playing with our time-wasters. (Of course there are many games and toys that have timing as part of their point and purpose. But even with these it's a limited, finite period of game play.) Not so with the tamagotchi. Once started, the little electronic "alien" life is born and then continues to grow through to adulthood before it "leaves" for its home. During it's life here in your son's or daughter's hands, it demands varying levels of care in the form of feeding, cleaning, praise, discipline . . . It chooses it's times -- not when it's convenient to play, but during homework, dinner, bath and so forth. To that point, the silly thing woke me up at 3:00AM chirping away because it needed cleaning or food or some such. (It ended up under a few cushions in another room; I hope it's not scarred.)
My point, to end this post, is that I'm fascinated by the toy. I find it amazing that the Japanese managed to find a toy that plays with children. That is, the toy is now directing the how and the when. What's the long-term effect of THAT?
Posted by Grayson at July 25, 2005 08:16 PM