There are many places you can go to watch a man (it's always a man) drill a hole through an iPhone and turn it into a fidget spinner. But the most unexpectedly pleasant place to partake in this pastime is Facebook Live, far from the overproduced glitz and slick editing of YouTube vloggers.Then, a breakthrough. The gold plate of the iPhone falls away and the chipped brown paint of his porch steps appears.He pulls out a bearing. Begins hammering. This is tough manual labor. He pinches the phone between his fingers, takes his other hand, flicks it. It spins. Oh, how it spins.*This is the noble way to turn an extremely expensive, sophisticated piece of gadgetry into a mostly worthless toy. Unsure if you will succeed. Tentatively. In front of your friends and family but not in front of the lucrative eyes of millions of subscribers. I asked Michael how he thought it went."I did not try beforehand hence why it went so slow lol," he said. "I think it went good."The ingenuity and perseverance of the human spirit cannot be overstated.
A few minutes ago, I got a Facebook notification: "Making an iPhone spinner………….." I loaded the video and was greeted—no lie—with crickets or birds chirping. In the background, various vise grips, drill bits, and the aforementioned iPhone. A man appears. His name is Michael Oberdick. He's an iPhone repair person and fidget spinner wholesaler, if you must know. He doesn't speak. For 30 minutes he drills. Switches bits and other hole-boring utensils. I'm no carpenter. It's clear my man Michael is not either. Progress is slow. He struggles, the drill bit spinning as harmlessly as your average fidget toy.
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