Your smartphone is 2017’s version of a tamagotchi
It was never meant to be this way.
At first we started checking on them as we waited for trains. Then we worried about them while waiting for the elevator—and then in the elevator. We checked them as we woke up and then again just before we went to bed. Then we checked them in the snatched moments in which we couldn’t sleep.
Our phones are an abusive, demanding, and needy digital entity; a Tamagotchi for the modern age. They don’t look after us—we look after them. We treat them as a living entity that we need to keep alive and grow. We nurture them and feed them with our data and power. We train them over time, their characters growing and evolving as we play games and donate our attention and love.
In this way, our devices have become a greater form of life. We carry them with us everywhere, often in cases and pouches protecting their fragility from the masses. We’re endlessly concerned with their energy levels and if they can get a signal; parts of our brains constantly yet casually look for ways to top up their charges, entering a room and subconsciously eyeing adapter cables and wall-outlet spaces. With every beep or vibration, we rush to their side. Their endless pings are a cry for attention, to be loved, to be fed with our minds and mental input.
............................This is the first half of a piece I wrote for Quartz, Quartz is a brilliant site that I support wholeheartedly, so the rest of the piece is on there.
Click here
https://qz.com/1050996/your-smartphone-is-2017s-version-of-a-tamagotchi/
Payments and Partnerships Expert
7 年At the London science museum, I found a revamped digital pet with 32 pet choices. I took them back to the US for friends from grade school. First of all, they seem to now live forever. Second, they are way less annoying than a smart phone.
Business Development Executive
7 年OMG??
Digital Marketing Manager at GeoPlace LLP
7 年Great article. Just wanted to let you know three of the paragraphs are repeated on Zenith's website https://www.zenithusa.com/smartphone-2017s-version-tamagotchi/
Marketing within the Automotive Industry
7 年Nice piece of writing Tom. The phone moved from a thing we used, to connect with the people we knew, to the thing we use, to make connections with people we don't know.
Sales & Alliances lead at ALVAO, ITSM/ITAM enthusiast
7 年The addiction and lack of authenticity are real but I have always found the lament about loss of real life interactions bit too alarming... I mean, I don't seem to experience degradation of real social life since smartphones and social networks. Sure, I've been through conversations where the other person can't stop checking the phone but that might just be new way of signaling that conversation is boring... bit more direct than staring out of the window, I admit :) Still great article. Thank you for it :)