Disturbing Doggie

On BART this morning I had to stand up in the back of the train and spend the ride looking over the shoulder of the woman sitting in front of me. At first I didn't pay much attention: she appeared to be messing around with her Iphone while plugged into her Ipod, much like the rest of the BART passengers that morning. But then I started to wonder what she was doing with her finger. She kept rubbing it in one place on the screen. I looked at the screen and saw that she was "petting" a digital dog. She pet it for a long time. Then she fed it. Then she gave it a bath. This required rubbing her finger on the screen for a good ten minutes, in one spot, while she lathered him up. Afterwards, she went back to petting him, gave him a treat, and put him to bed.

There didn't appear to be any point to the "game" other than taking care of the digital doggy. I checked. She wasn't earning any points.

I became concerned. What was she getting out of this game? There couldn't be any physical satisfaction from rubbing a cold screen with her forefinger for long periods of time. Neither could it provide her with any intellectual stimulation or physical challenge.

The only possible benefit I could imagine was an emotional one. The dog did emit some digital hearts. Did she think fondly of this pooch and look forward to BART rides when they could be alone together? If this were true, what did it say about her personal life -- that she felt emotionally connected to a half-inch digital image that she couldn't actually touch or communicate with in any way?

It made me sad. It also made me really curious and I tried to see inside her purse for more clues to her life as she put her Iphone away. I managed to glimpse a small plush animal before she checked to see if I was looking over her shoulder. I supposed it was her other friend.