Furby is a cuddly toy for ages six and up. The box tells us it has "a mind of its own." How you treat Furby shapes its personality. Have our gadgets become something more than tools? Have they become evocative objects, a part of our social and emotional life? How many people have you heard say that without their smart phone, it would be as if they had lost their mind? In this presentation, I will relate my weeks interacting with Furby and observing toddlers to teenagers doing the same. Do our toys and itools help us think and shape our thoughts? What happens when the Velveteen Rabbit meets virtual reality?
