Neopets

Yes, virtual pet. Was bored so I decided to visit my pet and earn some neopoints while I was there. What is amazing about neopet is it allows for irresponsiblities; you can simply fail to look after you pet for ages and it is still alive. It will simply exist in the cyberworld in a perpetual dying state until you feed it some food. Play with it for a couple of weeks and you can leave it to "die" again until you are free to feed it.

When we talk about humans being attracted to the cyberworld and losing our humanity in it, I sometimes wonder if it is an over-hype. I had my pet for more than 3 years now. The only time I had consistently fed it, groom it, play with it was when I was still in school. Once I started work, I probably only played with it 2-3 times a year. Lack of time.

Cyber is still cyber. It is not real. If I had a real pet it would probably not allow me to ignore it for this long, case in point is me and the stray cat that came to deliver outside my house a couple of years back. Although she has left my block for ages, but while she decided to make a home out of my parents empty pots (for plants) we fed her and looked after her kittens. It was a good time and the closest I came to having a pet.

Neopets. Guess my brain can still differentiate the real from the unreal.