Have you recently seen people around school playing with some weird, spinning thing that literally does nothing but spin? Yeah, me too. At first, I was dumbfounded. How could anyone possibly find something so simple, fun?

The fidget spinner was first created by a Florida woman named Catherine Hettinger, who had suffered from muscle weakness. She claimed she just wanted a toy that she could easily play with her daughter with little effort. Prototypes were sold at craft fairs, but her patent had lapsed and she couldn’t afford the renewal fee. Catherine hasn’t made any money from the fidget spinner trend.

I soon became intensely curious on why fidget spinners were so popular. So, I headed out into the dense Apache wilderness to search for answers, and boy did I find them. As I wandered around in the scorching hot sun during lunch, I began to question my fellow peers. If all you do is spin the fidget spinner around and around, why is it so popular? Freshman Scarlet Yang said, “It doesn’t require much skill and it’s small and portable, a perfect thing to do when you’re bored. Plus, it looks cool.”

I guess there really is no solid reason for why fidget spinners blew up. They’re just fun and convenient, especially since they are equally as accessible as your cell phone and don’t require Wifi. When asked about what he thought about the popular fidget spinners, freshman Filbert Aung suggested that fidget spinners, which are supposed to help you relieve your stress and help you from tapping your foot or other forms of fidgeting, are too distracting and are “doing the opposite of what they [the makers] are trying to accomplish—helping you focus.” So, what exactly do people do with fidget spinners? Well, sophomore Justin Phen stated, “People pretty much just spin them during class as a way to pass the time.” And it does seem like that is all you do with the spinner.

What do you think of fidget spinners?