Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/11/fidget-spinners-a-brief-video.html
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Just FTR, peak fidget spinner is already reached. The swiss Käseblatt “20min” had a front page headline about the stuff being sold out all over Switzerland today. (Oh, and a racist bullshit blanket immigration ban or something in that line right beside it. I didn’t read that shut, of course. Their right-wing populist articles are so predictably boring…)
I felt compelled to spin my spinner while reading this. Some spinner protips:
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go for weight, since mass = better spin. Copper?
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make sure the one you get has real, quality ceramic bearings. Makes a huge difference. This is the most important element in a spinner. Crap bearings = crap spin.
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tri-wing spins better than blade.
Now go forth and spin!
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Totes banned at the school I work in.
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Wouldn’t stop me from bouncing my leg, I’d just have two very annoying habits.
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It kind of drove me crazy, but the kids I taught in Taiwan were really skilled at spinning their pens during class. I assume that pen and pencil spinning is the origin of these things.
four weeks ago one of the teachers at my school bought one for himself, he is somewhat attention deficit and he thought it would help him. that was the first spinner i had seen on my campus. a week later i saw the first ones in the hands of students. a week after that at least half of the students in my classes had them and an underground market had started developing. last week over two-thirds of the students on my campus had them, teachers were informally banning them from view in classrooms, and they were for sale at every gas station/convenience store, wal-mart, grocery store, and 3 laundromats in town. this week the campus principal banned them except for those students who had a doctor’s note stating clearly and specifically that they needed them for therapeutic purposes. i also saw two students with spinners that had multi-colored, stroboscopic l.e.d. lights as well as functioning as an mp3 player with a bluetooth speaker system which they wore in one or more pockets or a pair of earbuds. on the underground market, students were paying $10 for a spinner which sells for $4.99 +tax at the local stores.
i am sincerely hoping this fad burns out before next school year begins.
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That sounds like the plot to a crappy sci-fi novella about a pandemic outbreak 
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last week as i was walking around watching all of the kids staring with fixed intent at the spinners as they walked through the halls i thought about this–
In my day kids spun their class rings on their desktops, or drew funny sketches in their notebooks.
And they LIKED it.
Sooooo, you all are serious about this, yes? I don’t live in the U.S. so I wouldn’t know. Also, the country in which I live is in general pretty reluctant on fads and also on diagnosing anyone with A.D.H.D.
I mean, I know how it went in the 90s with Yo-Yos, Tamagochis, snap bracelets, pogs (to a lesser extend)…, but those spinners are just sooo dumb.
Maybe it’s also because I skate, so I know a 30cent ABEC5 bearing when I see one.
[TL;DR] You’s serious, ya?
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