Abstract
The Virtual Pet Are My Homework contains an examination of the social and psychological relationships developed by early-adolescent and pre-adolescent children around the miniature electronic devices known as tomagotchis, or virtual pets. Two sets of children, one older and one younger, were interviewed in focus group settings. The interview protocol made use of prior research on social-psychological relationships with television and computers, and employed the results of these studies as sensitizing concepts. Though the number of subjects interviewed was small, it was observed that the children cognitively differentiated between the devices and the pets represented on the device screen. Further, uses and gratifications of the devices were found to center primarily on strengthening social bonds among older participants, while younger children related directly to the virtual pets themselves.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
31
Issue
2
First Page
16
Last Page
29
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Jones, Mark D.
(1999)
"The Virtual Pet Ate My Homework,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 31:
No.
2, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol31/iss2/4
Copyright
©1999 Iowa Communication Association
