Ok, I am about to state a fact that cannot be refuted. If you lived through the majority of the 90's, you either had one, or you wanted one. You don't know why you wanted one, you only knew you had to have one. This was something that could not be described in mere words, it was something that the very fabric of existence seemed to rest upon... .
All hail.
Ah, the effervescent glory that was Tamagotchi. These small elliptical toys were all the rage amongst the kids my age when I was about 6th grade. Like iPods are to Mp3 players, Tamagotchis were the start of a growing phenomenon known as digital pets, or electronic creatures that you had to spend every waking minute taking care of. Basically, it was like having a real-life baby that didn't share your eyes, beeped at you instead of crying, and looked like the spawn of two or more random animals.
This one is a ducktopus. It has wings on its head.
These small abominations of nature were so lifelike, they required you to feed them at any and all hours of the day, such as 3 AM or 11 PM. You know, when normal people eat. They would get tired and alarm you that they were tired, at which point you would put them to bed, although this tended to happen exactly in the middle of class. To further the realism, these mutant time-wasters would also upon eating their daily meal would defecate upon the screen.
Adorable.
After this lovely act, you would be required to flush away their stool; otherwise, you would risk them getting sick, although them getting sick from their poop brings up other images that I'm sure the creators thought of. Once they got sick, you would be required you to administer medicine to them in the form of an intravenous needle, which may or may not have given children the wrong idea about antibiotics...or syringes.
Look at all this medicine!
Every so often, if you raised your creature well, he would change into a more advanced version, or "evolve." There was no advantage to this, as stronger, bigger Tamagotchis required even more attention than the younger stages, thus demanding more of your time and making you have less of a life than the miniscule one you already enjoyed. If you didn't raise your digital pet well (i.e. played video games, read a book, or did anything but look at the Tamagotchi every five seconds), he would "pass on" (die) to Tamagotchi heaven, which I hear is a lot like our heaven, only slightly more egg-shaped.
Tamagotchi angel.
Tamagotchi also helped give rise to the later popular Digimon, Virtua Pets, and Giga Pets franchises, cementing its place in American society. Despite their time-consuming capabilities and demanding existances, Tamagotchis taught us important lessons about the miracles of life and the raising of children. Most specifically if you don't check on your baby every fifteen seconds, something bad will probably happen.
He'll be ok for just a minute...
