By Scarlett Tarango
Fidget toys have been around forever, but they’ve had multiple years where they’ve risen and fell in popularity.
Over the last few months, fidget toys and squishies have started to make a noticeable return. What’s with the sudden resurgence of these toys? What caused them to be so popular in the first place?
The toys had their first major popularity spike around late 2016-2017 because of the infamous ‘fidget spinner’ craze. They were marketed to people with ADHD and anxiety due to their health benefits, decreased stress, and helping to increase focus.
They’re original purpose was quickly forgotten because they were just really fun for kids to play with. Fidget spinners spread like wildfire throughout stores, homes, and schools. They eventually got too popular for their own good and were gone just as fast as they came due to many permanent school bans.
In 2020-2021, when the peak of the pandemic hit, fidget toys came back into the spotlight and became popular again. Whether from being bored inside our homes for too long or not physically being at school to have them taken away.
We collectively decided to start using fidgets again. This time all kinds of new fidget toys had made their debut.
“Fidget toys didn’t disappear from the shelves – they just diversified,” a Denver Athletic article about the origins of fidget popularity explains it, “Search online for the keyword “fidget” in 2021 and you’ll be met with page after page of different types of fidget toys. The infamous spinner is still there, but now there are also fidget cubes, ropes, buttons, puzzles, slime, putty, and so much more.”
After their second and more diversified spike in popularity of the pandemic, fidget toys slowly died down over the years, but they never fizzled out completely. So that brings us to their current resurgence in popularity. Why are fidget toys able to stay so consistently popular over the years?
The simple answer is that people still love to fidget. There’s always some new and fun fidget toy trending that reminds people that they exist. Even if they’re also fun, their original purpose still stands true. A handful of teachers at Benicia High keep them around to help students focus and destress.
When asked why she keeps a fidget basket in her classroom, Ms. Morgan answered, “I noticed that during long lectures students are usually fidgety with their hands or by taping pencils on desks.” When asked the positive effects she noticed after having fidget toys in her room, she said, “I’ve noticed that they’ve really helped students focus, and the quiet fidgets are way less disruptive than tapping a pencil on a desk.”
Fidget toys are something that will most likely always be around as long as people like to play with them. Fidget toys have lots of benefits for students and as long as they don’t become a distraction, there’s no harm in keeping them around.
beniciapaw.com 