Mash-up Final

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A Digital Pet

Essay #2

Liam O’Hara

IDS 3250

Dr. Stanovsky

15 October 2012

Tamagotchi: The Digital Pet

When I think of robots, the first thing that comes to mind tends to for me at least is the Will Smith Movie, iRobot or Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator”. The “good” robots in iRobot were there to take care of their owner and be a helping hand the same way an assistant would today. The robots demonstrated in Turkle’s book are not like the robots demonstrated in the movie, they are small and simple, but as time progressed they became more intellectual and adapted to the owners wants and needs. The earliest memory that I have of a digital device that is interactive dates back to the late 1990’s with the very popular Tamagotchi. For me the Tamagotchi was the digital device that many others and I used as a child that resembled the way I acted with people and animals. I would get to feed the digital pet at certain times of the day, clean up after it used the bathroom, help it recover from sickness which was due to the lack of attention. Also being able to see the Tamagotchi grow throughout all of the stages of life, ranging from the time it was a baby till it became a senior. Now looking back on my relationship with the Tamagotchi device for the first time in years, it seems weird and odd that I had this sort of relationship with a tiny device that was attached to my keychain, but yet at the time it felt completely normal and natural. It gradually became more and more of an important device and I always made sure I took care of the right way and fed it at certain times and avoided it from being sick. But if someone were to give me a Tamagotchi now, I don’t think the device would live past a week with my current busy schedule and lack of interest due to greater technological improvements in today’s world. And even know while reflecting on the little machine that is the Tamagotchi, I keep on referring to the device as “it” which gives the reader the impression that I believe the device is an actual living thing.

            The Tamagotchi is referred to plenty of times in Sherry Turkle’s “Alone Together”. Turkle describes the Tamagotchi affect on young children perfectly stating that “As Tamagotchi’s turn children into caretakers, they teach that digital life can be emotionally roiling, a place of obligations and regrets.”(pg.31) The way you interact with the digital pet that is attached to a key chain is very similar to the way you would interact with a physical, heart-pumping pet. You are always constantly caring for the digital pet, the same as you would to a normal pet, you also cater to the needs the same way which includes feeding it at certain times and cleaning up after it uses the bathroom. Having an early appreciation for a digital pet, such as the Tamagotchi, can have a positive affect on the way that person would interact with a human being or pet animal. It teaches the young children how to care and take after an object, even if it is stemmed from looking after a digital pet. It teaches the young responsibility due to the fact that the digital device can die if not given enough of attention. These are both great values that the Tamagotchi and other digital pets, devices, robots, and software are teaching the young children.

            When first reading Sherry Turkle’s Book “Alone Together”, it took me some time to understand the relationship the people had with these devices such as “AIBO” and “My Real Baby.”  What really caught my attention was when the elderly people interacted with the ‘My Real Baby” doll. I initially thought that it was weird and odd that people who haven’t given birth to a child in the past 40-50 years, found comfort in and enjoyed taking care of the baby doll.  The way that the elderly interact and took care of the “My Real Baby” is exactly the same, as they would interact with a normal baby child. But then after examining the situation, it’s similar to my experience with taking care of the Tamagotchi. You always try to satisfy the need of anything no matter what the object is. When the Tamagotchi is hungry, you feed it because it is a need and it is something you want to satisfy. And through learning and interacting like this at a young age provides a better foundation for how the person will react with future people.The Tamagotchi is just one of many digital pets, devices, robots, and software that resembled the way that people interact with people today. Throughout “Alone Together” Turkle conducts studies with different groups testing out the “AIBO”,

 ”My Real “Baby”, “Kismet”, “Cog” and many others. Each one of these digital services provide a sense of connection through every age group and it shows that we interact with these devices the same way we do with people.

The Recent Changes in Study Habits

I hope this turned out ok. I'm not that familiar with Imovie

First Screencast

It doesn't get much uglier.

Writing Assignment #1

The Internet has not only changed the world but it has also changed the way I learn, this is mostly due to accessibility of all sorts of information at my fingertips. The Internet has given me the chance to find any definition, any article, or any kind of news that will help shape the way I learn. This has just not been beneficial to me but also to our generation, the Internet has been there for any information you wished to possess. I personally think that the Internet has been able to broaden my horizons and also has helped me learn more due to the amount of information I am able to find in a matter of seconds. I no longer have to search through an encyclopedia and thesaurus to find information I need to use for a paper. Even now in University, I have the access to an online library, where I can type in key words to a search box and then have all the information needed at the second. The Internet has changed the way that students today learn and the way we learn is most likely subject to change again with the rapid rate of growth we continue to see.

The first time I ever used the Internet to further my knowledge was during middle school. It was for my 7^th grade English class, we did a research paper in which we went down to the school library to use the computers to find information on the topics that we chose. I remember using a search engine for the first time and it felt foreign to me, at the time I didn’t know what was in-store for the future. The Internet was this huge database that is readily available and when being first introduced to it was something new and exciting. My first home computer was the great Macintosh g3,

 

 my mom at the time was a graphic designer so we had a computer since the early days. The Macintosh stayed in the family for years until we got a dell desktop, then after that short life we invested in one of the recent iMac’s, which is my favorite computer to date but is also the one I spent days stuck to while writing papers for high school.

            The Internet is also changing the way that we think when we don’t deal with computers. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr, Carr states “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” This is the change that most people who use the Internet regularly are beginning to notice. Since I am so used to having the information through a simple Google search, my thought process has completely changed. I’m not saying that it has changed for worse; instead I believe that we need to adapt this new source of technology since it has a greater database readily available and is becoming more popular. Since I started using the internet for a source of learning, I have began to lose patience while researching in other methods such as searching through textbooks to find answers or looking up definitions that I have trouble understanding while reading a book. The Internet is an easier tool to use to find those answers and definitions in the fraction of the time.

            Before the invention of the Internet or even the computer, according to the article “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush information was received by “writing and photography, followed by printing; but we also record on film, on wax disks, and on magnetic wires”. The difference now is that all the information, which includes watching videos, looking at photography, and reading mass amounts of text is all available on one computer. The Internet has different mediums in which you can learn information. For example you can stream videos, listen to podcasts, and be interactive with others through discussion boards and comments.

            The Internet has changed the way students today find and process information. We no longer go to the local library to research encyclopedias and old textbooks. We have laptop computers and even cellular phones that can find the same information in a fraction of the time. I think it is safe to say that the Internet is changing the way we learn. Some might think it is a negative thing that we resort to web based text for information, but I think it gives the learner so many more opportunities to learn about a specific topic.

The Limewire Era

Through most of my Middle School and High School Careers, I was continuously downloading songs of Limewire and I thought at the time it was perfectly ok. For those of you who don't what Limewire is, it was basically a file sharing program that allowed users to download any song for free. But on October 26, 2010 they shut down the website due to court order. It has been said that copyright infringement and damages to the music industry has totaled over 1 billion dollars. Limewire was only one of many file sharing programs that were around at that time, but they were the most popular. Above is a video that discusses the death of Limewire. And there is a statement on Limewire about the deactivation of the software.