Tamagotchis

Tamagotchis arrived in toy departments in the mid 1990s. Plastic hand-held electronic devices about the size of a headache, they had a little screen on which, within a short time after starting the game, an egg hatched, and a baby creature was born. Then started days whereby the game-player had to check in regularly to see what was happening on screen, responding to little noises the toy emitted. Did your pet need food? water? attention? If you failed to check in and press the food or water or whatever button within a certain time, your baby got sick and unhappy. And if you failed to offer medical attention, the baby got sicker, and your baby Tamagotchi kicked the bucket, so to speak. If you took good care of it, the baby grew, and its needs changed with each level of the game. You actually got attached to the little critters.

My kids had Tamagotchis, and their teachers, one up on this one, didn't let kids bring these to school. Did moms and dads everywhere take care of their children's Tamagotchis during the day? I did.

I now see this was only practice for the future. After the Tamagotchis, I finally gave in and got a cell phone. It's about the same size as a Tamagotchi, and it has a little screen and little buttons like a Tamagotchi. It used to be you had a phone in your house, and you answered if you were there, and if you were gone, you were free of interruptions during your absence. Once you have a cell phone, you're expected to carry it with you everywhere, and respond to its buzzes and ringtones whenever and wherever they occur. Text just in, voicemail awaiting attention, wrong number phone calls, pay your cell phone bill online now. At inconsistent times, a cell phone makes fussy noises because it needs a battery boost. If you fail to attend to that, it makes higher alert noises and flashes, in red instead of yellow. And if you fail to feed your cell phone in a timely fashion, it kicks the bucket.

Then, there are the times you wonder if you have become a Tamagotchi.