No one is totally sure why they’re called hoverboards, but they are the new trend to get around on your feet. Thanks to Wiz Khalifa and Justin Bieber, among other less safe reasons, they’re completely selling out.
It’s Motorized Self-Balancing Board, Not Hoverboard
A lot of people have been fooled by the name ‘hoverboard’. The correct term is motorized self-balancing board, but that’s just semantics. The hype for these gadgets started when rapper Wiz Khalifa was forced to the ground and handcuffed at LAX. The reason? Refusing to get off of his hoverboard. Turns out you can still get in trouble with the law for owning a hoverboard, but for a slightly different reason.
Hoverboards as we know them know have been around for some time. They are only now becoming a popular mode of transport. There are even single-wheeled versions of the cool gadgets. Hoverboards only became a trend, though, as celebrities started popularizing them.
Celebrities like Wiz Khalifa and Justin Bieber Gave The Gadgets Good Rep
After the Wiz Kahlifa incident, a lot of people got curious about the term hoverboard. This is the stuff of Back to the Future and other fictional worlds, and it’s now a reality. Khalifa tweeted that hoverboards will be the technology everyone would be using in as soon as six months. Truly enough, a lot of people are ditching walking to lean slightly on this two-wheeled machine.
Jamie Foxx also promoted these gadgets quietly, strolling onto the set of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on a hoverboard. Many other celebrities got onto the trend, and hoverboards spread over social media like wildfire. There’s even a dance cover of a Justin Bieber song with a hoverboard choreography. Justin Bieber himself has posted videos of himself riding one of the gadgets on his own social media.
Now, The Gadgets Are Seen in a Totally Different Light
Hoverboards are more popular than ever now, but not entirely for good reasons. Most major airlines in the world have banned hoverboards coming on board. This started to happen after hoverboards started bursting to flames while charging unattended. This has given hoverboards a lot of negative light. Many retailers have stopped selling them, with only a select few having them available. Is the world just not ready for them yet? It’s yet to be seen.
