Why Do We Bond with Virtual Pets?
Virtual pets! Either you love them or you don't understand them. Join Teagan and Bekah as we explore the world of virtual companions, from early desktop buddies and Tamagotchis to modern apps like Neko Atsume and Pokémon Go, as well as investigating the psychology of bonding with pixels on a screen!
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Virtual pets! Either you love them or you don't understand them. Join Teagan and Bekah as we explore the world of virtual companions, from early desktop buddies and Tamagotchis to modern apps like Neko Atsume and Pokémon Go, as well as investigating the psychology of bonding with pixels on a screen!
Sources!
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View of Taken by the Tamagotchi: How a Toy Changed the Perspective on Mobile Technology
The Tamagotchi Effect: How Digital Pets Shaped The Way We Use Technology
Chaolan Lin, Travis Faas, Lynn Dombrowski, and Erin Brady. 2017. Beyond cute: exploring user types and design opportunities of virtual reality pet games. In Proceedings of the 23rd ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST '17). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 1, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1145/3139131.3139132
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Nahal Norouzi, Kangsoo Kim, Gerd Bruder, Jeremy N. Bailenson, Pamela Wisniewski, Gregory F. Welch, The advantages of virtual dogs over virtual people: Using augmented reality to provide social support in stressful situations, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 165, 2022, 102838, ISSN 1071-5819, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2022.102838.
Fei Zhou, Yifan Lin, Jian Mou, Virtual pets' cuteness matters: A shared reality paradigm for promoting internet helping behaviour, Technological Forecasting an Social Change, Volume 202, 2024, 123308, ISSN 0040-1625, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123308.
Na H, Park S, Dong SY. Mixed Reality-Based Interaction between Human and Virtual Cat for Mental Stress Management. Sensors (Basel). 2022 Feb 3;22(3):1159. doi: 10.3390/s22031159. PMID: 35161904; PMCID: PMC8840213.
Thanks to Pixabay for supplying obituary music! https://pixabay.com/music/ambient-abandon-sad-dark-alone-245714/
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