Tabagotchi: Manage your multitasking or this adorable digital pet will die

I remember when tabbed browsing became a thing, and it was brilliant. No longer would I need to manage dozens of Internet Explorer windows to stay on top of things – hello, sweet order.

Of course, what we didn’t realise at the time was that this was really just enabling our worst internet instincts. Now I’m an unfocused mess, with more open pages than I can realistically cope with – and the chances are that you are too. I see you eyeing up the tab next door – stop it, I’m getting to the point.

Tabagotchi

is a Chrome plug-in that hopes to curb your lack of focus by putting a digital life in your hands. The idea is simple: a homage to nineties toy pet craze Tamagotchi, Tabagotchi will sit in your browser, whistling along happily while you browse away. If you open too many tabs, however, Tabagotchi gets sicker and sicker and will eventually die. That’s right: your impulsive addiction to tabbed browsing just cost an imaginary life, you total monster.

If you can stick to five tabs or fewer for a cumulative ten hours, your Tabagotchi will evolve into something else, growing with your attention span. It will do this twice over, by which time you’ll have hopefully learned some valuable internet best practice – or maybe you’ll just have discovered that you shouldn’t be trusted with houseplants, let alone a puppy.

Either way, you can download Tabagotchi for Chrome now, though no options are available for Safari, Edge, Firefox or Opera. Just as well, as my Tabagotchi sitting happily in my Chrome window would have a figurative heart attack if it could see that I have 11 tabs open in Opera right now. It turns out that what it doesn’t know literally doesn’t hurt it. Sorry, little guy.