Telling It Like It Is

Study Ball: Study Ball and Chain Makes Kids Study and Do Homework

Heard about the new Study Ball? The Study Ball and Chain contraption is an electronic device intended to make your kids study and do their homework. I heard about this study ball prison-style thingy on the radio this morning and couldn’t help but laugh outloud. Seriously? Parents really need the Study Ball to get kids to study and do homework?

The Study Ball’s red digital display counts down the “study time left”, then the electronic ball beeps and unlocks when study time is up to release your child from “jail”. The Study Ball weighs 21 lbs, making it difficult for kids to stop studying and doing their homework, so they can of course go play video games and watch television.

The Study Ball cannot be locked for more than 4 hours at a time, and comes with a safety key to allow unlocking the device when desired. The Study Ball and Chain is sold online at Curiosite (www.curiosite.com) and costs about $115.00.

The website says: “Quite often, students who are having problems concentrating tend to get up every ten minutes to watch TV, talk on the phone, take something out of the fridge, and a long list of other distractions.

“Were they to dedicate all this wasted time to studying, they would optimise their performance and have more free time available.

“Study Ball helps you study more and more efficiently.”

Study Ball Designer Emilio Alarcon came up with the idea after a friend likened revision to being in jail.

He said: “Studying can be fun and enriching if you do it once in a while, but no one likes to study for days on end, especially not with an exam date looming overhead.

“The project was born of a conversation I had with a friend who was studying for a civil service exam.

“He said ‘I haven’t left the house in a week, this is like being in jail’.”

Wow. I bet kids won’t be adding this to their BillMyParents want list anytime soon. The old-fashioned “ball and chain” goes techie! What do you think about the Study Ball? Would you buy it?

Posted in Children, Education, Family, Humor, Parenting, Reviews, Shopping, Teenagers on May 21, 2009

Tags: Tags: BillMyParents, Study Ball

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BillMyParents: Socialwise BMP BillMyParents Online Payment For Teens and Tweens Shopping

BillMyParents (BMP) has announced its “cute” new launch by Socialwise for teens and tweens to get parents to pay for their ever-increasing want list. With this new BillMyParents online payment system, teens and tweens can shop at online stores to their hearts content and spend their parents money, without parents actually giving teens their credit card.

BillMyParents, powered by Amazon.com, is of course a simple and easy process. What is BillMyParents? Teens and tweens browse and shop at online stores for things they want to purchase err, things teens want parents to purchase FOR them and when it’s time to “check out”, that’s where BillMyParents online payment system kicks into gear.

Parents receive an email or mobile text notification from BillMyParents (www.billmyparents.com or www.BMPshopping.com) that there’s something your teen/tween wants you to buy for them, then you as the parent decide whether to approve or deny the purchase. If the parent decides to allow the online transaction, the parent then puts in their credit card information to complete the purchase. The parents credit card information is not accessible to the teens/tweens.

Teens and tweens can purchase anything from Amazon.com via Socialwise’s online shopping site, and the company has partnered with online gaming websites to help teens and tweens indulge even more in their video game addiction obsession, as well as virtual worlds and social networks Habbo, Artix Entertainment, Outspark and Rock You!, among others.

Making a living by selling products or services is one thing, but targeted marketing towards children so investors can make a windfall from sales off of tweens and teens entitled wants and whims is just gross.

“Currently the video game companies need to try to target a small group in their advertising approach. Generally they cannot advertise to parents, since parents really don’t always know which games their kids like. So what they stick with is marketing to late teens to early thirties to capture the market that will respond to the ad and have money to buy the product. This is their main market. Of course younger groups will see an advertisement and bug their parents till their parents buy it for them, but this is only a bonus.

You must note, some of these games, and gaming systems will sell out in hours or days. We are talking MILLIONS of copies at $30-$60 each (not including gaming systems and controllers which can easily hit $400 or more). So what if a gaming company could advertise directly to the 10-18 yr. old group? Basically BMP solves this problem for every company in this situation. They can market right to the younger kids and advertise “Buy this now with BMP”. With the excitement about this market, IDAE has secured lots of discounted ads. This is a nice first step.”

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Posted in Children, Education, Family, Men, Parenting, Reviews, Shopping, Teenagers, Women on May 18, 2009

Tags: Tags: BillMyParents, Socialwise, video game addiction, video game companies

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