Joltik's cute appearance and affectionate nature have made them popular household pets for much of Unovan history, but they have declined in popularity and frustrated many who retained them with the advent of home electrification. Half a century ago, Joltik could be found hanging on sweaters or jackets or crawling along carpets to absorb static electricity, but today they have found a new and remarkably abundant source in television.

Other home appliances, such as electrical outlets and light bulbs, can also attract the Joltik, and moderately darken a room or increase the electric bill in the process. But television offers the most static, and although Joltik are extremely small by pokemon standards, they are more than large enough to disrupt efforts to watch popular TV shows by crawling across the screen. And to make matters worse, Joltik are so tiny that poke balls fail to provide an effective solution; often, they sneak out through the crack in the center, which is not fully airtight when shut.

Many families solved this problem by simply not getting new Joltik when their current pets died or evolved, or by abandoning them to the wild. Others have tried a variety of creative but expensive solutions, such as putting a second screen over the television to eliminate static, or by feeding their pokemon by leaving the television on while they had nothing to watch, in the hopes that their Joltik would be satiated. Some even locked their Joltik outdoors or upstairs, but this failed, for Joltik are remarkable climbers and can squeeze through any opening. Today, with the advent of home theaters and big screen televisions, Joltik are making a comeback, for many modern TV screens are so large that a crawling Joltik blots out too little to make a difference.