It is one of the icons of the 90s. All the children had it, or wanted it. It has been 25 years since the Tamagotchi went on sale and triumphed around the world, despite the fact that it was the result of many studies on the dependency it created in minors. Three buttons and a screen were all it took for the virtual pet to survive, also for it to die. All the attention went to that screen.
Some will surely remember that parents said (with little evidence) that many children in Japan had committed suicide after the death of their Tamagotchi. And that they had read studies on the dangers for children of being glued to a screen all day. Surely this was the beginning, in those wonderful 90s, of a “dependence” on screens that is now part of the daily routine. When the Tamagotchi was the most sought after toy, having it ring in the middle of the night because it was hungry and waking up the child was intolerable; Now that the mobile screen turns on it is enough to end more than one dream.
Bandai, the company that created Tamagotchi, explains the success it had because it appealed to the nurturing instinct and the need to take care of the digital pet to continue its growth and ensure that it did not die. For the children it was the birth of a feeling of responsibility . “We had given birth to a totally new category of toys,” one of Bandai's top officials told Wired.
Tamagotchi, the new drug
The same article exposes one of the first warnings, in 1997, about the toy. The Finnish addiction specialist and sociologist Teuvo Peltoniemi described Tamagotchi as a new drug. Also that this would be only the first wave. “It is not just a fad that will disappear. (The Tamagotchis) are an ideal example of the possible threat that a virtual world becomes, in the future, a real dependency problem that needs treatment.”
The specialist, 25 years later, believes that the virtual pet was the first small tool accessible to the average consumer where virtual reality could be found , “and its most important characteristic was that it appealed to feelings of people through care “.
It is not a surprise to say that most people who had a Tamagotchi developed strong feelings towards them. That's why it was a drama if he died. For many children it could even be the first contact with the death of a loved one. In this case, of a loved “virtual” being. It was something that there was no way to avoid. There was no specific time for the Tamagotchi's death but there was no doubt that it was something that happened in a matter of weeks. And the worst thing is that many times it was not due to lack of attention towards the pet, but because it chose to die . Not easy for a child to fit in.
'He cried hysterically and went crazy '
Flickr In 1997, an article in The New York Times also warned about the consequences of Tamagotchi. It started like this: “The dog can be man's best friend, but a virtual pet can be a child's worst nightmare.” The article made reference to that double edge of wanting to generate the feeling of responsibility in children.
For children like Keith, who was 9 years old at the time, the death of their Tamagorchi was very hard. “He cried hysterically and went crazy” , his mother recalled. Mia's mother, another 9-year-old girl, explained that her daughter was very depressed for days. At that time, a psychologist consulted by the American media stated that the toy created a real sense of loss and a grieving process. As if it were the death of someone close.
These effects caused the Tamagotchi to be criticized by many adults. Especially those who saw how their children were busy all day taking care of a virtual pet that, when it died, left them devastated. They were not welcome in schools either. More than one prohibited its use because we remember that leaving Tamagotchi aside for a few hours could cause its death. The reason for the ban could be compared to what is currently happening with mobiles; They looked at it every 5 seconds.
9-year-old Ilyssa didn't want to restart her Tamagotchi because it woke her up at 4 in the morning
Those who loved their Tamagotchi could not part with him, but this virtual pet was not loved by all children. The New York Times quoted 9-year-old Ilyssa, who was criticizing one night woke her up at 4 in the morning. Ilyssa did not want to kill him and carry that on her conscience but she knew that once she died from a “natural” cause, she would not restart her Tamagotchi.
Courtney, 13, explained that it beeped every 5 minutes and that it got on her nerves. It would be curious to know if you currently think the same about WhatsApp messages.
In 2010, more than 76 million Tamagotchis had been sold worldwide. During the last years of the 90's it was one of the toys most loved by children. Now, a vintage item but that continues to kick its tail and in June 2021 it announced its return in the form of a smartwatch.
But this return has hardly caused any alarm. In 2021, the effects that the Tamagotchi can have remain in diapers if we compare them with those of some social networks.
