Fidget spinner

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Fidget spinner with ball bearings

A fidget spinner (from English fidget for restlessness / fidgeting and to spin for swirling / spinning ), also known in German as a hand top , is a toy that consists of a centrally placed ball bearing and several cantilevers.

history

The exact origin of the fidget spinner is unclear. A similar toy with a simple disc and a dome in the middle was registered for a patent in 1993 by the American Catherine A. Hettinger. Hettinger offered the toy to Hasbro , among others , but the company was not interested. Hettinger then sold its turntable itself through offers, for example at flea markets. In 2005, Hettinger decided not to renew the existing patent, as a result of which it lost the rights to its invention.

A six-armed fidget spinner resting and rotating

Years later, the fidget spinners, often about the size of the palm of your hand, are offered by a large number of manufacturers. They are available in different variants, colors and shapes. The typically at least three cantilevers (also: “wings” or “arms” ) around the centrally arranged ball bearing partially carry weights that can also be ball-bearing. Some models create patterns when turned, flash or glow in the dark.

In Forbes magazine at the end of 2016, fidget spinners were named "Must-Have Office Toy For 2017" .

In the USA, fidget spinners became particularly popular from the beginning of 2017, in Germany from the spring of the same year and developed "after Rubik's Cube , Tamagotchi and most recently Pokémon Go [...] into the new trend toy", according to the weekly magazine Stern . From March to June 2017 have been raised in the toy retailing Federal Association in Germany alone more than one million euros implemented . The hype led to delivery bottlenecks , sometimes schools were forced to ban the toys on their premises.

Game variants

A spinning fidget spinner

The easiest way to hold the fidget spinner is to hold it between your thumb and forefinger or middle finger and rotate it with the fingers of the same or the other hand .

As when playing with a yo-yo or a fingerboard , various movements and tricks can be performed, such as particularly long running times, balancing on fingers, nose and elbows or changing fingers (juggling). The toy can also be thrown and caught, without stopping the rotation.

Therapeutic benefit

The preoccupation with the toy is supposed to relieve nervousness. A therapeutic benefit claimed by manufacturers, for example for attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism , is the subject of studies, but scientifically sound statements have not yet been made in this regard.

Other easy-to-use objects that, like the fidget spinner, are intended to enable a retreat from stressful situations are the fidget cube , so-called anti-stress balls or flatterers .

Web links

Commons : Fidget Spinner  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c I think my finger is spinning. In: Spiegel Online . May 19, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Patent US5591062 : Spinning toy. Applied on May 28, 1993 , published January 7, 1997 , inventor: Catherine A. Hettinger. ‌
  3. ↑ a b c d Why kids love this finger gyro so much. In: Stern . May 31, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Joshua Brustein: How the Fidget Spinner Origin Story Spun Out of Control. In: Bloomberg News . May 11, 2017, accessed September 14, 2017 .
  5. ↑ As fidget spinner craze goes global, its inventor struggles to make ends meet. In: The Guardian . May 5, 2017, accessed May 20, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Alex Williams: How Fidget Spinners Became a Hula Hoop for Generation Z. In: The New York Times . May 6, 2017, accessed May 20, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Joshua Rhett Miller: Woman who invented fidget spinners isn't getting squat. In: New York Post . May 5, 2017, accessed May 20, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Everything you need to know about the fidget spinner. In: Noizz.de. May 16, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Why the "inventor" of the fidget spinner goes away empty-handed. In: The world . June 14, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017 .
  10. ↑ James Plafke: Fidget Spinners Are The Must-Have Office Toy For 2017. In: Forbes. December 23, 2016, accessed September 14, 2017 .
  11. ↑ This new toy drives teachers crazy. In: The world . May 19, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Hanna Lauwitz: Fidget Spinner: Any hype will pass. In: The time . June 20, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Natalie Urbig: Weirdos have to stay inside. In: RP online. June 14, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017 .
  14. ^ Dugan Arnett: Need to focus? Fidget toys may help. In: BostonGlobe.com. March 31, 2017, accessed April 4, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Jennifer Calfas: Do Fidget Spinners Really Help With ADHD? Nope, Experts Say. In: Time . May 11, 2017, accessed September 14, 2017 .