Electric shock when visiting Facebook


Some people are addicted to social media sites, like facebook or twitter. To help you get rid of these addictions two MIT students developed a keyboard to shock you.

This keyboard delivers you a mild, but quite painful shock every time you visit your favorite site of social networking. The new technique is called the Pavlov Poke technique.

The two students named Dan McDuff and Robert R. Morris developed this keyboard because the social networking sites are very addictive. A study of the University of Chicago discovered that these sites are more addictive than alcohol and cigarettes.

In the video they explain that the keyboard shocks you every time you spend too much time on a website. The shock is not dangerous, but unpleasant. The shock last roughly 160 milliseconds.

If that isn’t extreme enough, they also developed a phone call that yells at you whenever you visit your favorite social networking site. The moment you visit the site, like Facebook your phone starts ringing. When you pick up your phone some random person start yelling at you why you are on Facebook.

In my opinion I would never purchase such a keyboard. The whole technique was more considered as a joke instead of a real solution for these kinds of habits. I think it’s a bit extreme to get a shock whenever you visit your favorite social networking site. But it could be effective! If I had such a keyboard, I would visit Facebook a lot less and focus more on my assignments!

3 thoughts on “Electric shock when visiting Facebook

  1. That would be a shocking experience. I think I would consider one. I don’t want to spend too much time on BlackBoard or this weblog….

    All puns aside, I won’t buy such a keyboard. Yes, I admit that perhaps I spend a bit too much time on my smartphone and laptop, browsing the internet. But I know when it’s time do to important things and set these things all aside. And if you can’t, you’re going to have a bad time.

    I know this is considered as a joke, but if people really need this… If you’re really addicted, you should cut off your internet connection, and see the daylight for a change.

  2. It becomes quiet common phenomenon that people are checking their Facebook or twitter even it was just checked 5 mins ago. Currently people become addicted to the social media during his/her break. I think such keyboard is used to stop people using Facebook or twitter too often, it is plan to ask people go out of home to hang out with friends or reading a book instead of justing checking Facebook or twitter. However, it probably is not a suitable way from my point of view. Maybe facebook could blocked one’s account for 15 mins if he/she used too long time.

  3. We all know that a lot of people use social media these times. As long as you use Facebook and other social media with moderation, I think there won’t be any problem. But the experience is that a lot of people more or less get addicted to social media and I think that will be harmful. At first, your social ‘real’ life will suffer from it because communication goes more and more through social media. Also because everything is already said on social media, you don’t have to ask anymore how your friend’s vacation was or whether he/or she get his/her driver’s license; the review is on social media and if you are lucky the photos will be posted as well!

    A second problem is that school performance will suffer from social media. Almost every secondary school in the Netherlands provides free WiFi and that means that everyone with a smartphone can go on their device and use social media. The attention during class will diminish. Also doing homework will suffer from it because kids instantly use social media. In this case electric shocks would be preferred!

    Despite, I think that social media can also give educational opportunities like the hundreds of Facebook pages of classes, workgroups from universities. In that case social media is platform where people can share things, help each other, provide information and help with exam question. So I must conclude that there are two sides of social media, but I’m sure that everyone should find a balance in it.

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