The world’s fascination with fidget spinners may be dwindling, but that hasn’t stopped the media from debating their peculiarities. Do they really help promote concentration? Are they actually a health hazard? How quickly are they turning our children into literal zombies?
We obsess over them because, well, they’re new. Or at least we think they are. But, as the Book Of Ecclesiastes reminds us, there is no new thing under the sun. Wired’s Arielle Pardes stumbled across what appears to be a fidget spinner dating back to roughly 1800 BC.
This particular spinner, however, featured “animal heads,” marking an evolution of the toy that, based on a cursory Google search, we have yet to exploit.
The image of hyperactive kids in ancient Babylonia seems to have captivated the minds of fidget spinner fans everywhere:
middle-aged lady: kids these days with their silly fidget toys *dramatic sigh* it didnt use to be like this before
kids from before: https://t.co/WISwTAzM34
— a blueberry (@chhuuya) August 1, 2017
Like the spinner itself, history just keeps coming back around.