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The sight and sound of the new gadget at the fingertips of seemingly every child, teenager and adult across the country has posed a question many people are asking: “What the hell is a Fidget Spinner?” Much like the meteoric rise of phone app Pokémon GO that took the country – and the world – by storm last year, this year’s must-have seems to be bringing people of all ages together in the now ubiquitous sight of a spinning three-spoked triangle that rotates around a central bearing held between two fingers.
Kids who spoke to The Daily Star as the gadget spun between their fingers said it was hugely popular in their schools. “We are trading them at school and even buying cool ones from one another,” one of the kids said, while showing off six different Fidget Spinners.
Among the various varieties was a gold-colored metal spinner with the Mercedes-Benz logo on each spoke, and another one had fluorescent blades on the ends.
The weighted spokes keep the spinner twirling far longer than expected, mesmerizing the kids.
“We try to spin them and set them on tabletops or different places,” another kid said enthusiastically.
While the new fad comes in all colors and styles, Basel Bou Monsef, a psychology major at Notre Dame University, compared them to a modern misbaha, traditional strings of prayer beads.
“How entertaining do you think it is for someone to sit there click beads back and forth,” he asked. “You might think it’s boring, but give it a try and you’ll see – the same goes for the Fidget Spinner.”
While it’s hard to walk around Beirut today without seeing at least one person idly spinning away, Bou Monsef said that like other fads, the toy became a hit and would eventually be replaced by a different craze.
However, while a filler of dead time for many, Bou Monsef said there could be a more serious physiological applications to the Fidget Spinner – although thorough scientific studies would be needed to test and prove this. It could be used, he said, to help kids with autism and ADHD. “Instead of zoning off, their attention will be on the spinner and whatever or whoever is in front of them.”
Bou Monsef explained: “People with autism tend to do repetitive acts like playing with a toy car. She or he will turn it upside down and continue to do that over time. And with ADHD, they are always fidgeting with anything you give them. [With this] they can get rid of the excitement and concentrate on the task at hand.”
Meanwhile, Louis Khoury, an art director and graphic designer, said the concept of fidget spinning had been around for a long time.
“The concept is nothing new. The actual fidget spinner is new but the mechanical aspect of it is not,” as he took the spinner apart and showed the inner parts.
Khoury claimed, “Lebanese people, and humans in general, are known to fidget. They have short attention spans,” he said.
Also comparing it to a misbaha he batted away criticism that the gadget is pointless saying, “Explain to me the purpose of a misbaha?”
According to various reports, Catherine Hettinger invented the Fidget Spinner and had the patent approved in 1997. The invention came to her mind, she has said in interviews, during the Second Palestinian Intifada when she thought it would be a way to give Palestinian children something to do other than throw rocks.
Although the fidget spinner has been a huge hit for sellers, with vendors of the toy around Beirut telling The Daily Star that sales have gone through the roof, they have been banned from numerous schools for being too distracting in the classroom.
As of Thursday evening, a representative from Virgin Megastore in Lebanon said their five branches had sold 815 of their $9 (LL 13,500) entry level colored plastic spinner in the last two weeks alone.
The representative added that they have also sold a comparable number of the more expensive $11 metal versions, although she didn’t have exact figures.
Source: The Daily Star
