Fidget Spinners - What's the craze & hype all about?

There's a lot of hype around Fidget Spinners at the moment.

Just about everywhere you look lately you can see someone fidgeting with one, either walking or sitting at a coffee shop or on the tube or train. Heck people even have them at work spinning away at their desk.

So whats the hype all about?

Just to give you a brief history on Fidget Spinners, some sources claim that a chemical engineer named Catherine Hettinger invented them, to entertain her child who suffered from a muscle disorder. She originally had a patent on the fidget spinner in 1993 and tried to market it to toy companies such as Hasbro (with no such luck). Later in 2005 she let the patent lapse. Fast forward 12 years ahead and it's now a massive "must have trend" and toy.

So I decided to get one myself and see what all the fuss was about!

This one was sold in a packet which actually for me made it all the more appealing. I opened it and gave it a go!

So as I soon discovered there were a few neat tricks you could do with it.

The first one (and most obvious) is just simply spinning it.

Secondly I discovered you could place it face down on the table and spin it.. and if you spin it and press down on the button.. it actually gave it momentum and made it spin faster.

Thirdly I managed to pull out the magnet from inside the circle. Now I could hold the fidget spinner in one hand and the magnet in the other and use the magnet to make the fidget spinner spin without touching it.. this was quite fun I'll admit!

I also realized that if you had 2 or more fidget spinners.. you'd be able to stack them together or on top of one another, to make the others spin using one.

Overall it's a really silly toy, currently trending for the next 6 months and then will die out as fast as it became popular, much like the "pet rock" trend back in the day.

However, I would recommend getting one for situations such as when you're sitting in a queue and your phone dies, or spinning one to keep you awake in a seriously boring setting somewhere.

At the end of the day I guess it's a better habit than biting your nails or picking your nose!

Cool post Lee! Love those things! :)

Great article, Lee! I'm out of the loop in regards to these things. I haven't seen many of these around, and if I have, I've not really paid much attention to them. But I'll thank my lucky stars because reading this really makes me want to get one. They seem pretty damn cool! I think it's appealing to the inner child in me. Ha ha.‎

@leelektrik - I have a fidget spinner which I think you will also like ;) maybe we can play together some time?

So cheeky @queensteem!

@leelektrik - this is a very well written story and interesting history. I've seen these little gadgets for sale everywhere and wondered why they are so popular. One of our guests in the airbnb that we run, who was here for a financial conference walked in one day - so chuffed with his "new toy". Whatever !!! Don't think I'll be rushing out to buy one - although your article did make me kinda want to.

I haven't been playing on mine at all.. Coulf always use it as a coffee mug coaster!

Haha - I can hardly believe that @leelektrik

I've avoided buying one of them, 'cause I know I wouldn't be able to put it down. I'll admit though, I was rather curious about how they were made, so thanks for taking it apart and showing us.

The magnets are a cool feature to it! I've seen one made out of a bicycle chain... looked very cool

Very insightful. I was wondering what the craze was about. Thanks for sharing @leelektrik

Lee really needs some upvotes on this article. Please spread a bit of love :)