Fidget Spinner and my experience

I can't tell you how many times I hear someone say this, I bust out my fidget spinner for them, and before they know it they are addicted to screwing with it.

It might look dumb, but it's completely harmless and all the people that bitch about them do more harm than the people that innocently play with them.

I have never seen one in the wild. I didn't know they existed until the people I know on social media who are teachers started to complain about them.

That doesn't answer the question on how they help focus. Your answer seems to show how they are more of a distraction.

@dgtlty: The last fad was bottle flipping. They never make sense.

I think the idea is that if your mind is partially distracted by a physical task you can concentrate better. Personally, I used to spin pens around my fingers in class, though I didn't relate it to concentration at the time.

That said, I got a fidget spinner out of curiousity at FNAC, and it does little for me. I leave it on my desk and pick it up every few hours, but it just isn't my thing. Doesn't hold my interest.

After a little while, you end up holding it with a thumb and a finger (likely middle finger as it's the longest) and you spin it with your other hand. Just spinning it once it can keep going for 5+ minutes; the bearings inside are better than most skateboards.

With that, I find myself holding it with one hand while I do stuff on the computer with my other hand. You can also just leave it on the desk and spin it so you free both hands; the constant motion and noise itself can be therapeutic.

I have a fidget cube. It's a cheap one from China. The joystick is already stuck to one side.

I had a Yomega X-Brain Wing yo-yo. I used to sleep that sucker so hard, the rubber axle used to stay attached to the string and the two halves used to fly apart.

I had a World Industries Teck Deck and a Teck Bike. I built a half pipe out of a cheerios box. I remember my sixth grade teacher confiscating a tech deck during a particularly boring assembly and catching him playing with it during said assembly.

I don't know where I was going with any of this.

Tried one from my friend's younger brother, they said it was supposed to help you concentrate but it didn't really do anything for me. tbh it's probably the worst toy fad Iv'e seen since Pogs.

Another teacher here. The spinners are a fairly neat toy to play with, but they are exactly that - a toy. Nothing more. I'm fairly sure there is no actual proof that they help with ADD/anxiety/etc at all (I haven't read everything, but I have read several things saying that they do not help). They are incredibly distracting to both the person using it, and to everyone around them, since they are not silent and they catch the eye. The big thing that differentiates these spinners from the fidget cubes (which are perfectly fine and seem helpful) is that you tend to look at the spinner while using it, meaning that it has 100% of your attention.

So yeah, cool toy - NOT a tool for helping with focus; and they should definitely not be allowed in classrooms.

For me, the most annoying thing is how much commercial bullshit has arisen around these. E.g. OP mentioned his "licensed" spinner. I'll stick to huckleberries.

@luchalma: how that series contues to be a thing is beyond me.

Kind of reminds me of when yoyos came back in the UK in the 90s...just something dumb that shouldn't be coursing the stir it is. However I am a fidget and think things like the cube are call. I have an old phone plug adapter that the prongs flip in an out of and have different textures along each side that kinda facilitates the same function.

As somebody with ADHD, I find they help me focus a decent amount, not a ton, but enough to be useful. It really depends on what I'm trying to focus on.

In an attempt to try and describe how; it frequently feels like I have 2 minds separately trying to shift my focus between two different things at the same time to the point that I'm not able to really focus on either. Playing with the spinner or another fidget toy sort of occupies/distracts one of those minds, but is mundane enough that it doesn't distract the other one from focusing on whatever I'm doing.

Same here Duder.

@bollard: Haha you're not wrong. A vape shop near me also sells these spinner things apparently.

I had a go with one of these things recently. I didn't get it. Also, the claims that these help with ADHD are apparently unfounded. If anything, these seem to just be getting otherwise healthy kids into a habit.

Lots of news stories here in the UK about schools banning them as they interfere with the school day.

I first heard about them last year sometime on a subreddit about what people carry on them everyday /r/EDC . One guy had one, I thought it was cool, I thought I might get one if I saw one cheap in the wild.

A month ago I saw a meme about it, and was confused. Then I saw a kid playing with it, then the next day they're everywhere, every kid I see has one. I think they're cool, but I don't want one anymore, since now I think it looks childish. I bought one as a troll joke for one of my friends, it was $3, I couldn't resist spinning it to "check" if it's good.

What do school think doesn't interfere with a school day?

In my elementary school we woudl "fight" tiny wind up robots. Then there were pogs. Then there were Pokemon card, magic card or "other cards". Beyblades? Superballs? Wiggly Wall-Walkers? Temporary tattoo trading? Throwing snappers at girls? From time to time one kid will buy a yo-yo then suddenly twenty kids have them. A smart kid could easily disrupt school by bring in a "new cheap toy" once every month. As soon as one thing got banned they could be secretly introducing the next thing that isn't banned.

I'm not saying they shouldn't ban them, but they need to take teh long view that you cannot ban everything. AT a certain point you have to start teaching impulse control and to start using "the carrot" instead of "the stick" to motivate kids into better choices about WHEN to whip something out.

At first I had the same "wtf," reaction as most people..

but then I realized I've been doing this with my iPhone for ages. I'm always spinning or flipping my smartphone between my fingers so I figure these toys have a similar effect, for some. I tried one of my little cousin's and it didn't feel as satisfying as flipping your wrist to get a phone to flip around and spin.

Also, I don't understand how they help with ADHD; wouldn't they just be reinforcing ADHD because it allows the kids to zone out to their spinners instead of focusing? I guess it helps with the hyperactivity part but not the attention part? Idk, man.

I have never seen such a pro-huckleberry forum post before. The op must really like huckleberries.

@flashflood_29: as someone mentioned above, ADHD often feels like you have two 'minds' or trains of thought trying to do two separate things at once. Because you're trying to focus on too many things, you don't really focus enough on any of them to get something done.

For example, 90% of the time I can't just watch TV or a movie on its own. I HAVE to be doing something else or else I get unbearably antsy and it feels like I'm about to crawl out of my skin. I'll play video games as a background noise to the TV or I'll draw. Sometimes I miss story beats if I choose video games but it makes it bearable.

The purpose of fidget stuff is to give one fraction of your attention something extremely benign to do so you don't feel like you're going to explode from inactivity. My 'fidget' is to draw patterns in a notebook with a pen that writes nicely. If I'm in a class or a meeting at work I'll fill up an entire page with patterns over the course of an hour or two. If you have ADHD, small things like drawing or using fidget things shouldn't detract from what you're actually wanting to focus on, unlike video games+movies. From what I've tested, fidget spinners are on par with drawing for me but drawing patterns is kinda my thing now and I don't care to change it.

@themanwithnoplan: As someone also from GA, I can second the no one eats peaches in Georgia thing. But peanuts are a whole other ball park. =P

Tech-Decks were AMAZING when I was a kid. I miss those things.

My partner picks. Labels off bottles, wax off candles, fluff of the sofa etc. Its a little distracting. For a joke I bought her a cheap spinner. By jove, it worked. 2.99 well spent.

He's from Montana.

This Little Guy has helped me write a few design docs now. They're admittedly dumb, but there's something about a simple yet satisfying thing for your hands to play with while you are trying to focus and be creative.

I really can't tell if the whole word is fucking with me or not. Is this real or is it another finger box thing?

My best friend bought me one as a joke, and we both had a great laugh...but then...I actually really enjoy it. Well, despite from it constantly annoying me because I cannot ever spin it as fast as I want it to spin.

I'll never tell him that though.

@strangestories: I see! Thank you for the insight!

LOL @ LICENSED FIDGET SPINNER

Licensed by who? The overseas company that makes them?

@inresurrection: Religious spinners...okay?

@dave_tacitus: yea, it's all wireless nowadays :p

I have ADD, a fidget cube would do wonders to pay attention for me mostly because 'playing' with it only requires me to use the one sense I dont use while paying attention to information, touch. Theres nothing to look at or listen to, it seems solely made to occupy your touch in a discrete way and nothing more.

Fidgetspinners seem like they would be the worst for me though if the point would be to help me pay attention.

With a fidget spinner I'd constantly want to look at what the thing is doing, and looking at it while playing would 100% make my mind wander off in no time. Twirling a pencil is too engaging to function like a fidgetcube either for me, Its a skill you can improve in so i'll never be able to just do it without feeling the urge to constantly analyse my performance and try to improve myself, at which point I've already stopped paying attention to whatever I was doing.

Hmm, I wonder which fidget spinner OP uses?

https://www.amazon.com/Huckleberry-Fidget-Spinner-Relieve-Anxiety/dp/B072M4RJ75

@neverlands: Having a couple of crosses on it makes it religious? Hahahaha.

@inresurrection: It does, actually. It really just takes one.

A guy in calgary attached his dads straight razor to his spinner and cut his dick off while trying to shave his pubic hair.

My nephew brought one over. Had a case and everything for it. It has that burned purple metal look to it and when it spins, it gives this kind of trippy effect that I think I enjoyed more than the actual act of spinning it. Overall, I don't get it. I don't have ADD, ADHD, or experienced any other type of fidget toys/tools so that's probably where the problem lies, but there's still not a whole lot there to grab my interest. It's not solving my anxiety, curing cancer, or stopping my bad chronic case of farting when I get nervous. Which gathering from the craze around these things is something I would expect, I mean.. why else would they be so popular? Maybe having two of them going at the same time would help.

I spun it a few times and even learned how to balance it on the tip of my finger all within the span of 5-10 minutes then gave it back to my nephew and came to the conclusion that I could die peacefully without touching one ever again.

Maybe I'm too jaded or maybe I'm just hard to impress, but the hype train around spinners is definitely overrated, at least for me. The rest of you enjoy though.

As the fidget spinners do nothing for me, I bought a fidget cube for my desk at work. It has dials you can spin, buttons to click, a switch to flip, a joystick, et al. It's great, and succeeds for me where the fidget spinner fails in being satisfactorily tactile. It truly does help me with focus/stress. I dig it.

Worst fad ever. First touched one a couple weeks ago, now I spin them in whatever store I go into and imagine spinning it as some therapeutic mechanism and it seems to do way more harm than good to my attention span.

Probably for the best.

The ultimate form of spinner. Skate culture and spinner culture....and Lord Nermal.

@neverlands: So by that logic, wearing a cross or having an article of clothing with a cross on it would make me religious? Come on. You are smarter than that.

@inresurrection: Well, not by virtue of wearing the shirt. But yes.

That's some grade C fake news, duder.

http://www.snopes.com/calgary-man-slices-off-penis-attach-razor-blade-fidget-spinner/

I do really like how specific the fake report is, claiming it took place in Bowness made it almost believable vs. going for the low hanging fruit and putting it in the Northeast somewhere.

use to work with kids with ASD, it works for them. Well at least the ones I worked with.