Among students nationwide, the trend of bottle flipping has become less of an activity and more of an addictive tic. Bottle flipping came to the surface last year and began to grow in popularity as the school year started back up again. Adults and occasional peers are lost as to why the activity is such a common trend to students and what it is that makes bottle flipping such a fad. “My son went to a little league training program and they were teaching kids from Japan how to do it,”said one mom, Alyssa Lefrancois.

Clearly the fad is making it around the globe. There are numerous negative aspects of the trend, and surprisingly some pieces that make bottle flipping seem a little less distracting. Here at Ipswich High, bottle flipping was banned in our cafeteria, along with the entire middle school portion of the building. We interviewed a fellow classmate who is unofficially deemed the best bottle flipper in Ipswich High School, Miles Brengle, to get his scoop.

Many would be surprised by the amount of justification that can be derived from bottle flipping. Starting off with why kids do it, there is a simple answer: boredom. Students are locked up in school for 5-7 hours per day, so there has to be some expectation that they will find some way to blow off a little steam in between classes. The perfect flip can make any student feel accomplished, as Miles Brengle told us in our interview, “Bottle flipping is exhilarating and you just feel really good when you get that perfect slap on the table.” The activity carries on the human desire to compete and win. This factor is important in creating successful adults, who will be able to turn meaningless things into popular trends.

The bottle flip can even help a student gain respect within his peers. For more on this, we asked Miles how it feels to be the most accomplished bottle flipper at IHS, and his response was “It is an amazing title, and I pride myself on it everyday”. This simple skill can help a student gain confidence, and that is impressive. Some parents even feel like bottle flipping really isn’t as bad as it is made out to be. The trend is a better option than some other activities, and is a harmless use of time (and kids aren’t on their cell phones while doing it); these are some opinions of parents on the subject.

As there are some potential benefits to bottle flipping, there are obviously many downfalls. First of all, it’s annoying. Unless you’re the person attempting to cap your first bottle or land a simple flip, the repetitive noise of bottle flipping and falling is enough to drive anyone insane. The distraction caused by the activity has forced numerous schools to ban bottle flipping all together. Here at IHS, bottle flipping is banned in the cafeteria due to the mess that has occurred. “Food gets spilled over, [the bottles] end up on the floor. Our lunch room is busy and crowded. It doesn’t work well,” says one teacher at Arlington’s Ottoson Middle School, Peggy Ragen. Most parents are sick and tired of the wasteful use of water bottles and find themselves spending more money on cases of water than ever because kids are ripping through bottles to facilitate their habit. Miles told us that his own mom is utterly annoyed by his bottle flipping, and that she takes his bottles and throws them in the trash. Mothers and teachers alike are hoping that the trend is soon discontinued, but with all of the new found skills, the end does not seem to be near.