A Few Days with Fidget Spinner

Probably thanks to the massive reaction to that little fidget cube thing, more and more toys that “look useless but keep your hands busy” are hitting the market. The most typical recent example is this thing: the fidget spinner.

Fidget spinner, as the name suggests, is a top you spin between your fingers. Simple construction, clean look. Hold the center pad, find a way to get it going, and that’s it. It really does spin more easily than your average metal disc—feels super smooth. If you get the force right, you can keep it going for several minutes without stopping.

Right now fidget spinners come in two main shapes: two-armed and three-armed. Shape doesn’t change the game, though…

At first I was curious why it spins so damn smoothly, so I unscrewed the center cap… and saw the bearing inside…

So there’s no real difficulty here—just keep the distance and rotation balanced. Put a bearing in the middle and of course it spins for ages. It’s not expensive either; you can get one for under 10 yuan. You can spin it right out of the box, and it’s kind of fun for a while. Then after spinning for a bit you might think, “Surely there’s a more sophisticated way to play with this,” like doing pen-spinning tricks or something.

Actually, there’s nothing. The whole point of this thing is to spin…

You can spin it on the table, pinch it and spin, pinch it and spin while moving your hand, or pinch it and press it against something and spin… but it’s still just spinning.

If there’s any unique style to it, it’s only in the manufacturing. Search online and you’ll find tons of fidget spinners made from different materials. Some people even use gold—insanely expensive. Some idiots shaped theirs like shuriken; spin that and you feel like one wrong move will cause irreversible damage to your hand…

I bought a few fidget spinners, spun them when they arrived, and let my mom try one too. She thought it was interesting. But after spinning for a bit she asked me:

“What’s this even for?”

I thought for a second and could only answer:

“Nothing. Just spin it for fun.”

So my mom put down the spinner and walked off…

So for something like the fidget spinner, it seems like just a toy that’s very simple to make, very simple in structure, very simple to play with—and honestly not that interesting. Compared to the variety of the fidget cube, the fidget spinner is more monotonous. Compared to classic pen-spinning with all its tricks, the fidget spinner seems even more boring.

But that hasn’t stopped this simple thing from sweeping the American elementary school market…

Yeah, here in China I haven’t seen anyone playing with one. Maybe I’m not the kind of weirdo who stakes out elementary school gates every day, so I don’t know the details. But in the US lots of kids play with them, and over there the toy has been given some definitions, including its positive effects…

The gist is that it can help with autism, ADHD, and stress relief. Sounds fancy, but really it’s the same effect as someone tearing up a newspaper for fun.

As more and more kids play with these, problems have surfaced. First headache: teachers.

More and more schools abroad are banning fidget spinners on campus, naturally because they distract students.

Along with “affects learning and attention” comes another reason: fidget spinners are dangerous.

As I said, they’re very simple to make, simple in structure, and there are tons of “variants.” Many variants get modified into something like a weapon, and a high-speed fidget spinner plus throwing skills can absolutely become a deadly weapon. For kids who like to roughhouse, it’s definitely not very safe.

Teachers abroad also face another problem when dealing with kids playing with fidget spinners: some parents think things like fidget spinners can improve students’ reaction times, and teachers have no right to confiscate students’ toys, saying they’re completely harmless. In reality, this pointless spinning metal disc doesn’t bring anything valuable—it just kills time.

As kids playing with these became more widespread, more adults started to show annoyance, specifically through memes in foreign communities. Many people made meme images mocking the “fidget spinner” as a brain-dead toy. I mean, a Barbie doll at least fosters affection and caring, a model kit at least develops coordination, other toys either get you moving or develop your brain. Compared to those, the fidget spinner does nothing but spin…

Some even run polls to show they think this idiot toy has no reason to exist…

Is the fidget spinner a “good toy”? I don’t think it’s worth pursuing that question. It’s just a little gadget. Sometimes I think it’s like the stuff we played with in school as kids. It really has no big meaning, isn’t educational, but when you’re bored you’ll play with it anyway. Kids might find it novel, adults think it’s dumb—the age gap naturally shows in simple things like this.

“Is it fun?” “Can you play it?” “Never played before?” A line from some sketch echoes in my ears.

Maybe in a while this fad will pass. Compared to this, pen-spinning is still the more enduring sport.