Fidget Spinners Fail to Help Students Focus

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By: Emma Glennon, Reporter

People are always looking for new ways to focus, or new ways to have fun. However, some of the things that they try don’t work and are just the next fad toy.  Fidget spinners seem to be more like toys rather than tools.

    The spinner was supposedly designed to help with focusing difficulties such as, anxiety, ADHD and even autism.  This sounds like a very useful device except experts are skeptical as to whether there’s data to back up this theory. Also, there are people that don’t have trouble focusing that just use them for entertainment. According to Livescience, there’s not a lot of data that shows how it helps. Instead, they said it would probably be more of a distraction to people who spin them. They also stated that there are very little ways to test the effects of using them.

    Not to mention, the lights on some fidget spinners and the constant spinning distracts everyone else. I see kids spinning them on different parts of their body. This can be very distracting to me because I get really tempted to watch the spinners move.  If everyone else in the room is absorbed in watching it spin then, how does the person spinning it focus?  

   People might try to argue that they need something to fidget with. This might be a strong reason to keep fidget spinners if there weren’t other options. People have their own ways of fidgeting, some are more subtle than others. For example, pulling on a wristband or tapping on something. When I’m fidgety, I like to try to make it less noticeable, that way no one else gets distracted and I don’t feel like someone’s watching me.

    I also don’t think the fidget spinner phase will last long. I mean I remember those Silly Bandz that everyone wore. I don’t see much of those anymore, they were a fad.  There’s no way of knowing what the next fad will be. It could be something that no one has created yet, or it could just be a variation of fidget spinners, like Fidget Cubes. Fidget Cubes are a fidgeting device that as in the shape a cube that on side of the cube has something to play or fidget with.

    I think there’s a happy medium between the need to fidget and the next fun toy, that doesn’t agitate or affect others.  However, I don’t think that fidget spinners are the answer.  Maybe we should all try fidget cubes instead.