The Pavlok wristband will shock you. Literally. The wristband is designed to shock you with up to 450 volts of electricity whenever you exhibit an unhealthy behavior. If you don’t believe me, watch Steve Harvey shock himself the the video above.
I believe Lisa Simpson had a similar idea at one point:
Let’s hope the Pavlok is a little more successful than the electrified cupcake!
For what the creators call “trackable data” such as time spent on Instagram or Facebook, the Pavlok can be programmed to manually shock you at particular intervals. Over the course of time, this constant shocking should teach your brain, on it’s most basic level, not to do a certain activity.
But not all bad habits involve linkable electronics. For this, the Pavlok needs to rely on your human brain. Everytime you smoke, for instance, you’re expected to shock yourself. This seems like a pretty major weak point in the Pavlok’s design, as the user can very easily decide to not shock themselves. Those with enough discipline to follow through with shocking themselves everytime are likely more able to break an addicition on their own.
So our quick take here? It’s a promising concept that I think could work, though it’s probably more effective in the scenarios where you don’t have control over the shock.
