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Fidget Spinners Are Over (fivethirtyeight.com)
Walt Hickey, writing for Five Thirty Eight: The toy craze that has swept the nation -- cheaply manufactured fidget spinners of dubious metallic constitution -- is probably on the way out, with the high-water mark of fidget obsession appearing to be about a month behind us and the interest in the glorified ball bearings plateauing or declining. [...] Even if there's a long tail on this trend, it's very likely that peak fidget spinner is behind us. The kind of content now doing well on YouTube is either fidget-adjacent stunt videos or videos that have taken a particularly weird turn. This doesn't mean the ball-bearing business is doomed, just maybe don't go long on the spinner industrial complex or quit your job to live off a fidget-related Kickstarter idea at this point.
Fidget Spinners will see a massive, nostalgia-fueled comeback in the late 2030s.
Finding God in a Dog
So ... what's the next ridiculous craze that I should work to prevent my daughter from getting into?
Thanks for letting me breathe a small sigh of relief from having dodged this bullet...
"Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound
Just heard from five friends who got one this weekend.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
.. on the 3D printer I borrowed from Elon Musk.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Ah, crazy short term fads. I don't own a fidget spinner but I've seen them so I guess I missed the whole craze. I do have to admit some of the solid metal ones that were hand machined were impressive but at the end of the day it isn't much different then having a rock to play with or coin or something else to fidget with at your desk. Someone needs to try to sell a fidget rock with no bearings (it's just a rock) for laughs.
How can this be over? I just found out last week...
Fidget spinners are the "pet rocks" of the 2000 era. Never understood these fads, never wasted my money on this garbage. But at least the ball bearing manufacturers made a few bucks.
Don't worry, you can just put a red hot nickle ball on the spinner, crush it in a hydraulic press, and toss the result into a blender.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
When their parents start participating. When uncool morning TV show hosts start talking about the latest trend kids are into these days, you can consider that the beginning of the end.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Queeg was the original ball bearing fidgeter and it's mutiny if you think otherwise.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
I figured they were on their way out when I saw them on display at the car wash cash register.
Then submit something better. Or did you not know /. gets its news as user submissions?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I didn't even around to buying one. Well I guess I'll just have to keep annoying my co-workers with click-pens then...
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
I don't get it.
It's all ball bearings, nowadays.
Depends what she's doing with them.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
What the fuck is a fidget spinner?
There are LED fidget spinners that display text like spinning bike wheels, Bluetooth enabled spinners, animated spinners,etc.
7-11 started selling the, and they are already basically giving them away at price.
Or enough people have them that current sales figures can no longer be sustained. Fidget spinners are a stim toy, and stim toys serve a fairly practical purpose (although they may be supplanted by something else, such as fidget cubes). But you don't continually need more, and presumably, the vast majority of fidget spinners are not yet broken. So, logically, once a large enough portion of the population buys them, sales will level out.
Every time a new class of product arrives or is popularized, you see the same articles written by people who have apparently never seen adoption trends before.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I have a nice heavy solid copper one. It will be a nice memory, at least.
Going by social media trends: Probably.
Going by actual usage in classrooms: Not even close.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
You fucking clicked on it, didn't you? Obviously you care.
We've been trying for years to delete the Anonymous Coward account, but ever time you log into it, the Options/Account/Logout menu in the upper right corner disappears.
Are you the one who stole the strawberries??
Queeg was the original ball bearing fidgeter and it's mutiny if you think otherwise.
Nope. A wheel from my Rollerblades, with ball-bearing inserted, and played with in the exact same way, is much closer to the original fidget spinner.
That was 1990.
Going by social media trends: Probably.
Going by actual usage in classrooms: Not even close.
Yay! A physics-based response!
Freshman Physics. Bicycle Wheel. Extended Axle. Professor spins it up, and then hangs it from a string by one axle-end. Oohs and Aahs. Bonus if a strobe light was involved.
Precession.
Will that flush?
"His name was James Damore."
They use the same size bearings as a skateboard. Skateboard bearings fail pretty frequently. Pop out the bearing rings and give them to kids at your local skatepark.
There are several different grades of skate-bearing, specifically a #608-sized bearing. There are several rating systems, usually based on smoothness of the balls and races. ABEC-9 is the highest-grade. Then you get into materials. If you want something that will last longer than stainless steel (titanium, ceramic), then you can get into some seriously high prices. Some are $15 retail for one (Yes, really, and skates need 16.) Hard-core stunts involve hard-impact landings – repeatedly – for hours.
Odds are that the fidget-spinners employ the lowest grade, ABEC-1 or even rejects, and wouldn't last a day in a skateboard or Rollerblade.
Now that most kids in the US are not in school, they have many other interesting avenue to kill a day. The question is when they are forced to sit in a classroom all day, will they ask for the spinners, or will they find something new. Will the school continue to accept the spinners, or now that they is some understanding, treat them like any other toy.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Or everyone who wanted one has one, or two, or whatever. It's not like they wear out easily or get lost easily. Unlike memory sticks, which I don't bother buying anymore because I just end up losing them.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
Don't you get them on prescription?
Fidget spinners are serious business!
"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself." -- Bill Hicks
News at Eleven
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
When were they actually a thing? I've yet to see one (other than online), and I don't exactly live a sheltered life...I left momma's basement 40 years ago.
Just another day in Paradise
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Or you could just accept that your daughter will want to experience novelty in her life. And have faith that she'll outgrow obsessive behavior once it's run its course or that there are lots of options for professional help if she never outgrows it.
faith... outgrow obsessive behavior...quite an oxymoron.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Depends on the spinner. If you want jewellery class looks with top-end performance you have to pay for it, but it's available:
https://flyawaytoys.com/produc...
Sure, it's not ABEC-9 - but it's also not supporting high impact 150lb loads.
A major toy manufacturer might market then and make a horrible cartoon based on them.
Fidget Battle Xtreme! "Sanada, a Japanese zombie samurai, who is in possession of a fidget spinner that he stole from Sun Tzu, plans to take over the world with it's spinning power
The only ones that stand in his way are the students of Fidget Spinner Academy. Only they can begin to master the ancient magical fidget spinners of destiny."
There's a lot of exploitation left here.
Sig. Sig. Sputnik
... from Nate Silver's company!
Just like Hillary's 70% chance of winning the election.
Everytime I hear the word Fidget I think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Suggested reading: R. A. Lafferty's "Slow Tuesday Night"
Did someone actually mod me down for impugning their GUESS tee shirt? The mind boggles.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Choosing the meaning of other people's words to suit your own position? A timeless classic.
Quite. Coincidentally, it's as old as organized religion.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Fidget spinners are the "pet rocks" of the 2000 era.
Pet rocks don't do anything, unless you put them in a sock and hit someone with them (My pet rock named Schleprock who slept in a tube sock?) but spinners are kinetic toys. They don't do anything by themselves either, but they're a hell of a lot more interesting than a pet rock. I'd say they're almost all the way up to gyroscope. :)
In fact, I'd say the gyroscopic effect is a part of what makes a fidget spinner interesting. To me, anyway. (I know I'm a fidgeter, so I picked one up recently.)