Amazon's Selling A Bracelet That Shocks You Out Of Spending Too Much Money

This shock bracelet delivers a wrist zap to help you break “bad” habits

Amazon kind of has it all. You can buy clothes, electronics, books, toys, kitchen wares, vibrators (*sexy face emoji*) and more — all from the comfort of your couch. Now, you can buy a little gadget that might help you stop those pantless couch shopping sprees, if that’s a habit you’re looking to break, that is. The online retail giant is now offering a bracelet that delivers a tiny shock every time you’re about to partake in a thing you’d like to stop yourself from doing.

Sounds bonkers? That’s because it kinda is. Let’s break it down.

It’s called the Pavlok and it’ll run you about $200 on Amazon.

Its whole deal is that every time you “crave” the bad thing you want to stop doing, you zap yourself. Yup. It’s self-delivered. Which begs the question — if you can stop yourself from biting your nails or spending $482 at Target (LOL, that’s me) or smoking a cig long enough to literally shock yourself, can’t you just… not do the bad thing you’re trying to stop doing?

I guess that’s not as interesting as wearing a teeny shock collar on your wrist.

The idea is pretty basic — Pavlok claims that you’ll start to associate the pain of the zap with the craving, so over time, you crave it less. Because who wants to hurt themselves 43 times a day? Also, if overspending is your vice, buying a $200 wrist zapper is probably just another symptom of the problem, but what the heck do I know? Also, let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is literally a method we use to teach dogs to stay in the yard. So. Yeah.

The item’s description reads, “Pavlok allows you to speak your reptile brain’s language by adding an unpleasant element (a safe and harmless ‘zap’ of electricity on your wrist) to what you have been taught to love (your nasty lingering habit). Quickly conditioning your mind to associate an ‘unpleasant’ feeling with your bad habit… and stopping it all together.”

The device has a companion smartphone app to help adjust your zapper settings and use their habit-breaking courses along the journey to not doing whatever it is you want to stop doing.

The company really stands behind their product claiming it’s decades of research in the making. “Breaks bad habits via zaptic feedback, based on 80 years of science-backed, aversion therapy studies. Other wearables track what you’ve already done, only Pavlok 2 can help you change your behavior.”

Quick sidebar: I cannot personally endorse the idea of shocking yourself to change your eating habits, as some reviewers of the product have done. Just… no. That’s problematic as all hell and just absolutely not. But smoking? Overspending on frivolous things you don’t need? Nail biting? Oversleeping every single morning? Sounds like a plan… I guess?

In the end, you do you. If you have a bad habit you’re desperate to break and all other methods have failed, maybe this is your ticket. I’ll just be over here buying too many books, oversleeping, and not making myself cry out in pain because of it.