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Having a hard time cutting out that extra McDonalds? Sleeping in past noon every Saturday? Finding yourself sitting on your phone for hours a day? These habits are common amongst our generation. Amazon, acknowledging the difficulty of breaking bad habits, has developed a bracelet that shocks you when indulge yourself a little too much.
The Pavlok bracelet will administer shocks to the users whenever they partake in whatever habit they are trying to kick. A lot of users are purchasing this device as a helping aid to cut out binge eating and excessive fast food. Junk food aside, it can be programmed to disipline just about any behavior.
How does it work?
The shocks administered are the equivalent of touching a doorknob after rubbing socks on the carpet. The shocks aren’t insanely painful, but are enough to begin building a negative association between the user and their habit. The tricky part is who administers the shocks— you.
There is a shock button on top of the bracelet and you also have the option of setting up the Pavlok app on your phone. Within the app you can customize settings, count your calories, and administer shocks to yourself when you’re tempted to partake in bad behavior. The Pavlok is even capable of tracking movement and can shock you when you lift food to your mouth.
Can we trust ourselves to break our own habits? The app is also compatible with family member’s devices. They are able to track you as well, pressing the shock button if they see you misbehaving. The Pavlok sells for $199 on Amazon, (around £158), and can administer 150 shocks a day. Is this enough to break a bad habit?
The website states, “Aversive conditioning is essentially behaviour training that uses negative stimuli and association to help reaffirm a specific action as undesirable.”
If we begin to feel pain when participating in the behaviors we love, I guess we won’t love them anymore. If desperate enough to lose the extra weight or improve time management, the Pavlok may be something to try.
