The love-beep: emotional and psychological factors of the Tamagotchi phenomenon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/dra.2025.1059Keywords:
Tamagotchi, virtual pets, artificial intelligence, care, electronic toys, attachment, deathAbstract
Tamagotchis and other electronic virtual pets were conceived as care and affection simulators. Their commercial success is due to two main factors: the mimicry of life cycles and a belief implying that the game participates in social morality’s construction. A parenting performance which was sold as a risk-free simulation, resulted in a sense of real responsibility among its younger users and caused a shift in the ontological and epistemological perspective regarding the self and the machine. Beyond becoming a pop icon, artificial cyber-pets caused a cultural and personal impact, distorting our view of caring practices, affective attachment and community. This article intends to dissect these psychological aspects that transcend the console to understand its relevance and corresponding comeback.
Downloads
References
Airoldi, Massimo. 2021. Machine habitus: toward a sociology of algorithms. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Alexander, Julia. 2017. «Tamagotchi will make its return in a world that doesn't understand or need it». Polygon Archives. Disponible en: <https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/10/16449938/tamagotchi-release-2017-price-date>. Fecha de acceso: 20 oct. 2024.
Allison, Anne. 2006. Japanese toys and global imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Andersen, Kurt. 2015. «The best decade ever? The 1990s, obviously». International New York Times 7 feb. Disponible en: <https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A400444389/AONE?u=anon~b5126c8b&sid=googleScholar&xid=31db32bd>. Fecha de acceso: 23 oct. 2024.
Aristóteles (aut.) y Milagros García Valdés (trad.). 1988. Política. Barcelona: Gredos.
AP Newsroom. 1997. «Philippines: Tamagotchi virtual pets may be banned from schools». Disponible en: <https://newsroom.ap.org/editorial-photos-videos/detail?itemid=1e991715958ed0760426b40e6c865d2e&mediatype=video&source=youtube>. Fecha de acceso: 18 jun. 2024.
Azpeitia Orobengoa, Irati. 2023. net.art_: historia, exposición y conservación. Trabajo Fin de Máster. Universidad del País Vasco.
Baudrillard, Jean. 1996. The system of objects. Nueva York: Verso.
Cable News Network. 1997. «Funerals held for dead Tamagotchi cyberpets». Reuters 17 ene. Disponible en: <https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/_Q6i2YYeHLXxgt0iBiOi1iWp>. Fecha de acceso: 25 jun. 2024.
Depounti, Iliana, Paula Saukko y Simone Natale. 2022. «Ideal technologies, ideal women: AI and gender imaginaries in Redditors' discussions on the Replika bot girlfriend». Media, Culture & Society 45(4): 720-736. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221119021
Derrida, Jacques (aut.) y Peggy Kamuf (trad.). 1994. Specters of Marx. Londres: Routledge.
Fisher, Mark. 2017. Los fantasmas de mi vida. Escritos sobre depresión, hauntología y futuros perdidos. Buenos Aires: Editorial Caja Negra.
Foucault, Michel (aut.) y James D. Faubion (trad.). 1998. Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984 II. Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology. Londres: Penguin Books.
Frank, Adam, Andrew Stern y Ben Resner. 1997. «Socially intelligent virtual pets». 1997 Socially Intelligent Agents AAAI Fall Symposium. Disponible en: <https://alumni.media.mit.edu/~benres/verbiage/Socially%20Intelligent%20Virtual%20Petz.htm>. Fecha de acceso: 24 may. 2024.
Gn, Joel. 2017. «Designing Affection: On the Curious Case of Machine Cuteness», en Joshua Paul Dale, Joyce Goggin, Julia Leyda, Anthony McIntyre y Diane Negra (eds.), The aesthetics and affects of cuteness: 175-193. Londres: Routledge.
Kidd, Cory. 2003. Human-Robot interaction. Trabajo Fin de Máster. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Kusahara, Machiko. 2001. «The Art of Creating Subjective Reality: An Analysis of Japanese Digital Pets». Leonardo 34(4): 299-302. Disponible en: <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/19722>. Fecha de acceso: 29 may. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1162/00240940152549203
Lang, Annie, Samuel D. Bradley, Edward F. Schneider, Sojung C. Kim y Sharon Mayell. 2013. «Killing is positive! Intra-game responses meet the necessary (but not sufficient) theoretical conditions for influencing aggressive behaviour». Journal of Media Psychology 24(4). https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000075
Llamas Pacheco, Rosario. 2014. Arte contemporáneo y restauración. O cómo investigar entre lo material, lo esencial y lo simbólico. Barcelona: Tecnos.
Martel, Frederic. 2011. Cultura Mainstream. Cómo nacen los fenómenos de masas. Disponible en: <https://www.google.es/books/edition/Cultura_Mainstream_C%C3%B3mo_nacen_los_fen%C3%B3/S4UYKBPbzkAC?hl=es&gbpv=0>. Fecha de acceso: 6 jun. 2024.
Ocheretyany, Konstantin A. 2024. «Ghost in My Pocket: Tamagotchi Media Archaeology». Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies 6(2): 260-276. https://doi.org/10.46539/gmd.v6i2.492
Olivier Reiter, Alex. 2013. Digital pet graveyard. S.F. Disponible en: <https://alexandra-reiter.com/digital-pet-graveyard-1>. Fecha de acceso: 7 jun. 2024.
O'Rourke, Anne. 1998. «Caring about virtual pets: an ethical interpretation of Tamagotchi». Animal Issues 2(1): 1-20.
Rigotti, Carlotta y Gianclaudio Malgieri. 2023. «Human vulnerability in the metaverse». Alliance for Universal Digital Rights; VULNERA. Disponible en: <https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3677016>. Fecha de acceso: 26 oct. 2024.
Subramanian, Kalpathy Ramaiyer. 2008. «Myth and Mystery of Shrinking Attention Span». International Journal of Trend in Research and Development 5(3): 1-6. Disponible en: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327367023_Myth_and_Mystery_of_Shrinking_Attention_Span>. Fecha de acceso: 2 jul. 2024.
Schmauks, Dagma. 2000. «Teddy bears, Tamagotchis, transgenic mice: A semiotic typology of artificial animals». Sign Systems Studies 28: 309-325. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2000.28.17
Sontag, Susan (aut.) y Aurelio Major (trad.). 2003. Ante el dolor de los demás. Madrid: Santillana Ediciones Generales.
Tamagotchi Graveyard. Disponible en: <https://shesdevilish.tripod.com/grave.html>. Fecha de acceso: 10 jun. 2024.
TamaTalk. Tamagotchi Memorial. Disponible en: <https://www.tamatalk.com/forums/tamagotchi-memorial.23/>. Fecha de acceso: 10 jun. 2024.
Turkle, Sherry. 1984. El segundo yo: las computadoras y el espíritu humano. Buenos Aires: Galápago.
Turkle, Sherry. 2011. Alone Together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. Nueva York: Basic Book.
Woolgar, Steve. 1985. «Why not a Sociology of machines? The case of sociology and artificial intelligence». Sociology 19(4): 557-572. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038585019004005
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
