- Are fidget toys really worth it?
- Hmm, let's talk about that.
(upbeat music)
Good mythical morning.
- Everybody who's anybody has a fidget toy.
That's what I've heard.
These things are all the rage, and Forbes,
that's not just my friend Forbes, that's a publication.
- But you do have friend named Forbes.
- Yeah, I hang out with him quite a bit.
- I want him to be my friend, but he doesn't talk to me.
- Yeah, well, he's my butler.
He says that fidget toys
are the must-have office item for 2017.
So if you have an office, you must have fidget toys.
- All the rage, and I don't know, 100% sure,
but I think a lot of it has to do with this guy right here.
This is
the Fidget Cube, which is a little device
designed for no other reason than to channel
your fidgeting needs into it.
All these different ball bearing, push button,
roller things, switches, spins, and clickers,
and some silent non-clickers.
- Wow, there's quite a lot.
- Two guys with a company called Antsy Labs
created a Kickstarter for this thing,
and their goal was $15,000.
- Modest goal.
- And then as of last October, they raised $6,400,000
for this thing.
- That's quite a few $15,000's.
- A thing that does nothing except all you to fidget.
Now, I got one in my hands,
and for $6,400,000, I'm only half a believer,
but a lot of people got behind this thing.
It's the ninth most-funded project ever on Kickstarter.
It's the second-highest backed project in terms
the number of people who backed the thing.
- Right.
- At least as of last October.
So this thing set off a trend across Amazon
and across the internet for people to create
and sell, and then for us to purchase, all types of fidgets.
- Yeah, so now there are all kinds of these things.
This one that I've got is just very simple.
It's just a bunch of little key rings put together,
much simpler than what you're dealing with.
But you can kinda just rotate it in your hand like this.
Now, obviously it being such a funded thing
and raising over $6,000,000, there's demand for this.
People think that they need it.
It turns out that there might be some science
behind this whole fidgeting thing
and why people are demanding it.
Now, the idea of fidgeting,
obviously this has been around forever, right?
The scientific principle behind this is that
if something we're engaged in is not interesting
enough to sustain our focus, you know,
I should fidget while I do this.
- You should.
- I really should complete the circle.
If something we're engaged in is not interesting enough
to sustain our focus, the additional sensory motor input
that is mildly stimulating allows our brains
to become fully engaged and allows us to sustain focus
on the primary activity in which we are participating.
So in other words-
- I heard everything you said 'cause I was hitting a switch.
- What, whoa!
(laughing)
- You just dropped, uh, you're gonna have to drink it now.
You're definitely gonna have to drink it.
Get it, get it, get it.
(laughing)
Oh, now it's moist.
- Anyway, because I have this, I was able to focus
on drinking that drink.
I drank all of it all at once to get to the fidget toy.
(laughing)
It's just water.
I'm acting like I had a tough time with it, it's just water.
- Okay.
- And this might, this might some scientists presume,
that this might date back to prehistoric times
when our ability to focus 100% on a single task
was not entirely desirable, because you might be focusing
on something 100% and then a ravenous beast
will come out of a bush and bite you on the butt.
That's just the kinda thing that happens,
and you need to be able to be focusing
on multiple things at a time.
- To be able to give some of your attention somewhere else.
- Right, now that we--
- So it helps you focus, but at the same time,
it might help you be alert otherwise.
- Right, and now in modern times,
when we don't have to worry about beasts coming
out of bushes, but we're just doing office things
and being in school and that kinda thing,
fidgeting has become a negative thing, right?
There's a negative connotation with fidgeting.
So we associate it with people
who have attention deficit disorders, but the fact is,
all kinds of people fidget,
but it doesn't matter that we've done it forever.
People still see it as unprofessional.
If you do it in a professional environment as an adult,
it's seen as unprofessional.
If you do it as a child, you're seen as immature
and your teachers tell you to stop.
- Yeah, or that you have anxiety,
like that guy must be anxious
'cause he can't keep his legs still.
I mean, for me, the thing that I find myself doing
is taking my wedding ring, oh, I can't get it off right now.
That's weird.
- Oh, you've gained weight.
I was gonna say something, but...
- I really can't.
I usually, it comes off very easily.
There you go.
I take it off and then I'll fidget with it in my fingers
until I drop it awkwardly on the floor in the middle
of a meeting and it makes that sound,
and everybody's looking at me tossing
my wedding ring on the floor.
- He doesn't wanna be married.
- It's gonna go down into a crevice at some point,
and I'm not gonna be able to find it.
- Depends on which crevice.
- But I feel a little stigma associated with doing this.
- Right, and for me, I was a biter.
I would bite pencils and pens and that kinda thing.
I just always thought 'cause I was hungry all the time
and I like to put things in my mouth and chew.
- That guy's malnutritionized.
- But it turns out that fidgeting,
while there's a negative connotation to this culturally,
it's good for you.
Now, research shows that a correlation
between working with your hands,
there's increased memory and creativity.
- Okay.
- But even more specifically than that,
a 2005 study concluded that kids who are allowed
to fidget, little Timmy, fidgeting in class,
they learn more quickly than those who are not.
So if you're a teacher and you're telling little Timmy
to stop moving his leg or bite on his pencil,
you're really ruining his future.
- Now, you can't be distracting everybody else,
but if you can do the silent parts,
like I'm doing the silent part right now,
then that's good for everybody.
- So it totally makes sense why people felt
that there was a need for this,
because it's something that applies to almost every person.
It can be helpful to every person
because it's not a bad thing.
It's actually good for you.
- So what you're saying is that the $22
that you can pre-order this thing for may be justified,
or you can get it on Amazon now.
This is a generic ripoff for probably under $5.
But you're saying that that's justified.
- Well, that is the question.
I think that fidgeting is justified,
but as I've seen you over there playing around
with that Fidget Cube, I've been eyeing something over here
that I think is a great substitute.
Link, that's a TV remote.
- It is, is it not?
- How many buttons do you have, Neil?
- It's got a simulated screen on it.
- That's right.
- I've got about 17.
- Yeah, look at that.
I've got 17 just in one little spot.
I've got ups and downs, I've got Exit and Menu,
and they all feel different.
I got red, green, yellow, blue.
- So you're gonna be that dude in a meeting
with a remote to nothing.
- And they're like, "What?
"Is he gonna cut something on?
"No."
- The thing that I do is I pop off the back of that,
and all of my remotes at home have that gone
because my kids fidget with them.
But I'll present another one.
What about this noodle thing?
$2.50, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo!
Look at me!
I'm slinging a noodle in a meeting.
No one's distracted by that.
The thing I like to do is I like to tie it in a knot
on top of a knot.
- Mm.
- And sometimes on top of a knot.
And then I'll take this thing
and I'll just squeeze it and look at it.
- Okay.
- And then I'll untie it.
- And that's $2.50, you say?
- $2.50.
- I got a whole bowl of noodles for $2.50.
(laughing)
Look at this.
- [Link] You're gonna fidget with noodles?
- I can double fist it.
- In like a park, or something.
- Look at this, I got two.
- And I tie it in a knot.
Tie it in a knot.
- I can tie it in a knot all day.
- Tie it in a knot, tie it in a bow.
- Can you eat yours?
- [Link] Uh, maybe.
Is that a challenge?
No, I'm not gonna eat this.
- So you're telling, I mean, I think I've got,
and listen, when you run out of one, you got another.
They just keep on coming.
- Oh, these are kinda sticky too.
- Yeah, don't you like that?
- I like the stickiness, and they're silent.
- And look.
Well, mkay, well, I was trying to stick it to you.
But yeah.
- Um, I got another one here.
- More affordable.
- This is a ball in a tube thing,
which you can get 10 of these for under $10.
It's like a Twizzler choking on a marble.
I'm like, "Wait, Twizzler!
"Just wait a little bit,
"I can squeeze this out and you'll be fine."
- But you can't, 'cause it's stuck in there.
- No, I cannot.
- I see a couple of problems with that that I can solve.
- It's a dying Twizzler.
- M&M's.
Alright, I essentially have created
exactly the same thing that you have.
- Thank you.
- You're having fun over there running your
little marble around in your Twizzler?
Guess what I've got?
- A M&M in a M&M bag.
- With an opening.
- How long are you gonna not eat the last M&M,
I think, is the question.
Once you, oh, boy,
you're really having a good morning, brother.
(laughing)
- Man, I was trying to do something cool and it hurt.
- You chipped your tooth.
- It hit the roof of my mouth.
- So now it's gone.
I mean, now you don't have one.
- No, look, look, I got another one.
And look, I can get one to you.
Heads up.
- Oh goodness.
- Heads up, heads up, Neal.
- This is like going to a Japanese steakhouse.
(laughing)
It's like a shrimp.
If that woulda hit me in the back of the throat,
I would have been like this dead Twizzler.
- You would have been sustained.
- And finally, I've got this ball bearing spinner.
- Oh, these are pretty cool.
- Which, at first, I was like, okay,
oh. (laughing)
- We shouldn't drive today.
(laughing)
- At first I was just like--
- I've never seen us like trying to spin something.
- Well, you're one to talk!
You chipped a tooth and dropped your--
- Alright, spin it.
- I was like, well, this is not too special.
I'm just spinning this thing,
which I can kinda feel the ball bearings, which is nice.
But then you discover, if you do this,
you start to feel this gyroscoping centrifugal force
physics things happening, that I cannot convey
to you how pleasing this is.
It just feels like I'm defying the physics
of a thumb and a forefinger.
- It's pretty cool, but...
It's pretty small.
Talk about a gyroscope.
(laughing)
I think I'm having more fun.
Now, you may be a little distracting
in a meeting or a class.
- Yeah, that's a little bit distracting.
- It's distracting?
- But at least you're the cool guy with a unicycle.
I mean, that's definitely gonna make up
for the fact that you're doing that.
- So I think the jury is still out,
not on fidgeting and whether it's good for you,
but whether you should be investing in these toys
because you could just get a unicycle.
- Thanks for liking, commenting, and subscribing.
- You know what time it is.
- Hi, I'm John from Moreno Valley, California.
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