Tamag-oh-no

Remember when Tamagochi's were the ultimate thing to own?
Kids went crazy over small egg-shaped plastic "pets" that you needed to "feed", "bathe" and "cuddle" within a certain time-span or they would dramatically die...
And when it did, it was a total hassle to get it back to life again as the whole thing had to be reset (if you had a more expensive version, the cheaper versions didn't have that option)
In classrooms the silences were filled with soft bleeping sounds coming from schoolbags, as the Tamagochi begged for attention and/or food.

I let mine die.
It annoyed me.
Maybe it's because it missed a cuddle-factor, or maybe I'm just a bad digital parent, I don't know.
But after a few days....frankly....I wanted it to die.
So I stopped doing anything to it, and watched the little figure on the screen slowly perish.
(can't believe it took quite some time for it to actually do so)

Anyways......

Now, a few years later, Tamagochi's are a thing of the past....

Are they though?

Because, as I was awakened in the middle of the night from a deep-flu-recovering sleep that I really REALLY needed, by my whinging mobile phone who desperately wanted to be "fed" electricity, I suddenly had a flashback.
And after I had plugged it in, and it vibrated in contentment over the electric feast it was about to receive, I looked at it and shuddered....

My....my....mobile phone....it....it wants to be fed, it seeks attention anywhere I go by buzzing in messages and chirping phone calls, it wants me to play games with it........IT'S.............IT'S.......
A TAMAGOCHI!!!!