If I decide to have a pet, I will have a real pet, but not an electronic toy. Tamagotchi is just a tiny machine, though the main character in this game is like a baby chick that eats, sleeps, and wants the Tamagotchi-owner's attention. I agree with Mr. Yokoi (I think he's the guy who invented the game) that people should love and take good care of their pets, but playing an electronic gadget, that has a higher recreational value than the educational value, will not really reach that goal.
It will be too naive to think that we can feed, teach, cure, and play with a pet simply by pressing a few buttons.
Also, if a real pet die, we cannot just push the "reset" button and start all over. What is more, there is no communication of love when we play Tamagotchi, but a flow of electricity or entering and executing a computer's command. In fact, the life, the behaviour and the response of the Tamagotchi, the little chick, were planned by a computer programme long before we buy it, even its surprising habit and movement were fixed.
Imagine, how can we learn to love and take good care of our pets if the pets and ourselves are separated by a liquid crystal display. Will you sympathize the little chick that it cannot come out of the screen, but stay in the tiny screen forever? Will you sympathize yourself buying this little chick that moves strangely and screeches like a robot (BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!)?
If I have a real pet, I can take it for a walk in the beach, in the countryside and embrace it. What I want to say is love and care cannot be expressed to a pet not until you take the first step by looking after them, touching them, and living with them.
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