Or as I like to call it: topic pivot.
Tamagotchis, the virtual pets dangling off the keychains of all children, and young adults, and even adults in the 90’s and early aughts, were unassailable in their availability. And, perhaps puzzlingly, in their appeal. Those were pets who could barely interact with you, who died due to some cruel trick of their design, or who necessitated enough care that you’d have to pawn them off on someone else to take care of if you were going to be away for their routine feeding, just to keep them alive.
The reason I was reminded of this topic, is because of the influx of productivity and wellness apps, sprouted from the fertile (and oversaturated) soil of the mobile application landscape, which follow a similar principle of the tamagotchi: ever tried to keep hydrated by periodically watering a cute plant (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/plant-nanny-cute-water-tracker/id1424178757?correlationId=c8e80d94-93f8-4604-9c2b-d513332f745d), or trying to stay off your phone in order to maximize productivity by nursing an egg that wouldn’t hatch if you happened to check your phone (https://gethatch.app)? Luke Dormehl of digitaltrends.com makes the bold claim that the tamagotchi is actually that, which preceded the advent of the mobile phone; a device, which you carry around in your pocket, which notifies you constantly and demands you take time off your day to attend to it? By getting daily pings and reminders from those adorable little animated wellness-app characters, you’ve inevitably sucked yourself into the same void that consumed the pioneering Japanese businessmen, who cancelled meetings in order to feed their beloved digital pets, lest they die in their brief absence. (https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/642373/tamagotchi-history)
Whereas before the tamagotchi was the beloved pet which served no function other than to be born, procreate and die a digital death (of old age or neglect), now the thing being taken care of is not only the avatar, but vicariously through it, the “player” themself. Truly a symbiotic relationship.
It doesn’t only stop with wellness, however.
Knitwear company Sheep Inc. pride themselves on their humane handling of merino sheep and their sustainable sweater production line. (https://sheepinc.com/pages/about-us). They are not only transparent about the chemical process of their sweater production, but also are invested in keeping their products wearable for years to come, with a “sweater clinic” they’ve set up for repair of their garmens. ( https://sheepinc.com/pages/the-knit-clinic). The buyer of the garments also gets to name the “sheep that produced the wool for their sweater” with the website even providing a tamagotchi-style game with an avatar of the sheep which lets them interact with it. (https://youtu.be/uq4Vi8PyBFM?t=1758) Adorable! But what would spur them on to make such a decision?
It is a cool extra, but they could’ve easily stayed within the bounds of what is expected of sustainability reports – lie about the CO2 emissions you’ve offset to prove that your product is a net neutral to the environment, or, better yet, buy a Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) and wash your hands of the entire headache. (https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/3/23901236/apple-carbon-neutral-watch-report-supply-chain-emissions-transparency)
And yet, in a bid for strengthening the idea in their consumers’ minds that they care and that you should care about where your wool comes from, they topped of the entire purchasing experience from them with a pixelated avatar of a sheep.
Do digital characters you get to take care of lessen the sting of picking up a new habit like the sugar that goes down with the pill? And if you didn’t care about sustainable wool production and knitwear made to last, would briefly interacting with a digital sheep really endear you to the cause?
(As an aside: I am inclined to cast aspersions on how truly environmentally friendly Sheep Inc. could be, given the prevalence of AI-generated art on their webpage. AI-generated content is a useless sink of unfathomable amounts of resources (https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117) and I am waiting with baited breath for the popping of that particular bubble. But I digress.)
There is lot to be investigated psychologically as well as technologically around the idea of curating a mobile experience solely dedicated to impacting social and personal change via an avatar which serves as the catalyst for a process in which you not only nurture but are the one being nurtured. In which a digital sheep can inspire feelings of affection not only for it, but also for the idea of the well-being of animals.
