THE NEXT BEST THING
- Photography Yana Sheptovetskaya
From Tamagotchis to cassette tapes: A celebration of the tech that shaped a generation.
THE TAMAGOTCHI For many millennials, their first pet was small, demanding and chronically incontinent. When Japanese company Bandai launched the Tamagotchi in 1997, preteens around the world were enamored with the virtual creature that required its owner to feed it, discipline it and clean up its messes. This gameplay proved so addictive that The Baltimore Sun labeled those in its grips “the Tamagotchi generation.” Schools banned them and parents complained that they were forced to babysit them. “It’s the most powerful product I’ve ever heard of, in terms of what it demands from a child,” one psychologist remarked to The New York Times.
THE CD In 1982, a German factory manufactured an unassuming piece of polycarbonate plastic. The slender, laser-encoded compact disc represented a years-long collaboration between Philips and Sony to develop a superior alternative to the LP record. The result was lightweight, resilient and could be mass-produced. Several years later, Sony released a portable CD player that allowed consumers to carry their music around with them. By the time the CD celebrated its 25th anniversary, its success could be measured by its ubiquity: 200 billion had been sold.
