My dear, sweet wife and I were watching late night television tonight and we came across this new product on the cheap commercial front; the Clapper Plus! We watched with some amusement; we both grew up in the Clapper Generation. Many people remember the original “Clapper” from our youth; “Clap on; clap off!” – But the Clapper Plus is like Clapper 2.0. Not only can you access your Clapper in the traditional way of making an audible succession of claps; there are other ways to make the Clapper Plus work for you!
From the Clapper Plus website; “The original sound activated switch is now even more easy to use and more convenient. Now with RF Technology for Silent, Wireless activation! You can still clap your hands and turn your appliances on or off, but now with RF technology. You can also press a button and your lights will effortlessly turn on or off!”
Got that? In lieu of your traditional switches, the Clapper Plus comes equipped with a pendant you can wear and you put in this press-and-go switch which that will enable you to activate your lights! It’s genius! It’s almost EXACTLY THE SAME THING as a light switch! In fact that’s exactly what it is!
My wife and I were mindlessly watching this commercial and both of us recoiled in disdain. How low will advertisers go to play on consumers fears and inhibitions; “our light switch is the only way?” – shudder to think. My wife was the first to verbalize what we both were thinking; “so…it’s a light switch.” With the utter lunacy of the statement we both erupted in peals of laughter.
I get it that for the criminally anxious or the elderly having something which can turn on your lights like the Clapper with just the sound of your clapping could be a beneficial thing. There are really those who can’t make it to the light switch and I can appreciate that the Clapper would be of supreme utility for them. But let’s look at what separates the Clapper Plus from anything else. This new version of the Clapper; Clapper 2.0; comes with a pendant that you can wear around your neck or on your belt loop so that can be handy; the night can sneak up on you. But why would you want to replace someone’s use of a fully-functioning light switch with the Clapper Plus? It just seems to me to be problematic. The only saving grace for the elderly with the original Clapper seemed to me to be that if the unit somehow broke down or wore out of batteries; at least there was always the light switch. Making people dependent on the Clapper Plus seems like it presents a recipe for disaster.
Consumers, as they always have before, will decide for themselves if the Clapper Plus system is something which will work for their lives.
