The Neck Fans Are Coming

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The last seven years are the hottest seven years ever recorded.

Breaking even more heat records this week, the National Weather Service says this summer is the hottest in history.

Many cities are on track to experience their hottest summer on record.

The summer of 2024 broke heat records all around the world,

just like the summer of 2023 and the summer of 2022.

But don't worry, the clever consumer goods industry has thought up a solution.

Instead of telling you what it is, I'll let you hear it. Can you hear it? Wait, that's the neck fan? It sounds freaking insane.
I'm Hannah Rosen, and this is Radio Atlantic. And this week, the neck fan.
An odd bit of wearable tech designed for our warming planet. Senior editor Sahil Desai often writes about the intersection of technology and consumer culture.
And after reporting on NeckFans, he brought his own into the studio for me to hear. It's like if you put a battery inside a mosquito and we're wearing it a centimeter away from your ear.
It's like how it feels. It's just like, yeah, just constant buzzing.

But how is that soothing?

Like, how does that not override the fact that you're a little bit cooler, that noise?

I don't know.

I'm someone who sleeps with a white noise machine

and hated it for like the first two days.

And now I just cannot sleep

with a white noise machine on at night.

So I just feel like you get used to it

and it's kind of nice.

I don't think I can concentrate until you turn that thing off. Sales of neck fans have boomed over the last year.
At the Paris Olympics, organizers wanted an air-conditioning-free Olympic village. But a summer heat wave in France meant that you would often see neck fans on athletes and their families, most notably Simone Biles' parents.
Neck fans are a wearable technology that people seem to be actually wearing, unlike, say, VR goggles. What has been interesting to me is what it means for the future of wearable technology writ large and whether it positions itself as somewhat of an inflection point.
Obviously, you don't walk around and see tons of people wearing their Apple Vision Pro goggles or any other VR goggle all the time, even though, you know, Facebook quite literally changed its name to Meta to signal the significance of this future, that maybe all of us would be doing this. But you do walk around and you see people wearing neck fans.
So I think these cooling gadgets are sort of the near future of wearable technology. So many people already have AirPods and Apple Watches, and now the next step are these cheap gadgets to help us cool down as summers keep getting hotter.
Next step because they aren't a copy. People have always worn headphones and watches.
An Apple Watch is just basically a high-tech watch. But what's harder is creating something new.
There is no precedent for wearing a fan around your neck. No set social norm.
And with things heating up, it may be the first truly new kind of wearable to catch on. Okay, so confession I've never worn one.
What is it, and what does it do? So you wear it around your neck. It's sort of, I would say, a mix of, like, beats over-ear headphones and, like, a travel neck pillow.
So you wear it around your neck. And so what's obviously great about that is that you just, you know, you turn it on and just leave it there.
You don't have to hold anything. It looks absolutely ridiculous.
But it's very just, you know, it's hands off. You don't have to do anything.
And so I think that is what has made it just so popular.

What does it claim to do?

Like on the box, what does a neck fan say it's going to do for your life?

Some of the branding around neck fans is like so extreme that it's like it's ridiculous and amazing.

I saw so many claims of like personal air conditioners and ridiculous graphics of like neck fans covered in ice as if you could just put on this gadget in 120 degree weather in Phoenix or whatever and do whatever you want. Obviously, it's not that.
It's just like a fan around your neck. It's nothing like an air conditioner.
Okay. We're going to have to talk about all the ways in which this spread, because I do feel like the neck fan is everywhere.
I'm going to tell you my brief history of the neck fan. So a couple of years ago, I began to see it here and there, but it was like a cheesy looking thing.
It was like a little string. And then my son, who's always hot, I got him a neck fan.
But it was truly a piece of junk. And, you know, it was here and there, but not a lot.
And then all of a sudden this summer came those neck fans that look like beets, you know, like they have kind of fashion presence. But I still don't know, though, if it's a piece of junk or if it's something.
Like, I can't tell if this is the first good piece of wearable technology

that has been invented and now we have crossed the line

or if it's just literally junk and I'll never see one again.

I think it's sort of like Schrodinger's gadget

where it's a little bit of both.

It's like definitely junk in a lot of ways.

I mean, in the simplest sense, it's junk in the sense that a lot of neck fans are extremely cheap and likely shoddily made. I think I probably got, you know, all things considered one of the better neck fans.
It was like $28 on Amazon. But you can find neck fans on like, you know, sites such as Tmoo for $10 or $12.
It's like definitely indicative of how all these products are pretty cheaply made. But I think that the product is also, it's both junk but also good junk, if that makes sense.
I was pretty skeptical of this neck fan, but also it's really just nice to wear one. I think the fact that they are so pervasive is a sign of that, that even if these products are not the Rolls Royce of gadgets, they're still nice to have around.
I mean, the neck fan is definitely sort of part of this way in which gadgets have just become cheaper. And why? Like, what are the things that led to gadgets being everywhere and cheaper? In large part, it is because of just dramatic declines in the cost of lithium-ion batteries, right? Like, the cost of these batteries have decreased something like 97% in the last three decades.
They're the same batteries that power electric cars. You know, that's what enables Teslas to happen.
But in a sense, like, every gadget is now a lot like an EV because these lithium-ion rechargeable batteries can also be really small and powerful in a gadget like a neck fan. And so that's enabled, you know, e-scooters that you see on the streets, perhaps, but also hyper-cheap products like the neck fan.
As we've been discussing, it's sort of the potentially the future of wearable technology, but it just encapsulates like so much of what's going on in e-commerce right now, where all these gadgets that have gotten cheaper and just so much variety of things you can buy. And the neck fan sort of rises above that because it's like precisely engineered for a moment of hot weather.
It also is junk, but also effective. So it just seems like almost like made it a petri dish to take off in a moment like this one.
After the break, the science of the neck fan. The trend is real, but are the devices themselves actually keeping us cool? That's in a moment.
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Not available in all states. Okay, Sahil.
So, Neck fans did this interesting thing, which is successfully create a new social norm for a thing you wear on your body. Is that the factor, like a social acceptability, the most important factor that makes a gadget ubiquitous like this one? Yes and no.
I mean, I think to some degree, a lot of this is mediated by social media and algorithms, right? There have been a lot of videos on social media and TikTok in particular of people wearing neck fans, which then, you know, might send them to like TikTok shop where they can buy a really cheap neck fan. But also, I think, yeah, I think a lot of this is what is seen as cool and but also what's seen as effective, right? I think that there are a lot of gadgets that go viral for a minute, but then people spend the $12 on them and then realize that they are literally functionally junk.
Whereas the neck fan is junk in a sense, as we were talking about earlier. But also, you know, it's effective to some degree.
You can wear one and immediately see the purpose. So you think it's effectiveness.
Interesting. I think it's effective in a sense, right? You'll be shocked to hear that the companies selling these gadgets on Amazon aren't exactly linking to peer-reviewed research about the efficacy of neck fans.
Right. But I asked a researcher who has studied actually how cooling the neck affects heat regulation in the body, what he thinks of these products.
And I was actually really interested in his answer because it's not straightforward, right? What he was saying is that cooling the neck, like sort of as a neck fan would do, has a really big effect on how we feel in terms of the coolness that we feel, but actually not all that much in terms of regulating your overall body temperature. So what that means is like for someone like me who, you know, I live in New York where it gets hot in the summer, but not like deathly hot, wearing a neck fan around definitely would make me feel cooler.
But it could be a problem for someone who might want to use a neck fan sort of to work outside in, you know, 110 degree weather for eight hours. A neck fan is not going to dramatically make someone safe in extreme heat.
It could even backfire and give someone the sensation of feeling cooler without actually being cooler. Got it.
So being cooler would require your core body temperature to cool. Like you would have to measure the temperature.
Yeah, that's interesting. But feeling cooler has a little bit of a positive effect because it's nice or it actually does have a positive health effect? A little bit of both.
Basically, if you're outside in, let's say, like 90 degree weather, presuming you're a healthy adult and, you know, are not highly susceptible to heat, being in that weather is not going to be a health concern for you. So feeling cooler can be a good thing.
I don't think that, you know, wearing this neck fan has dramatically like staved off any effects of the heat for me. But it's like just felt better in the way that, you know, wearing a hat and sunglasses just like helps you experience the heat in a better way.
Got it. Like if you're walking around Brooklyn or walking around wherever you live with your neck fan, you're feeling a little bit cooler, you have a little bit more energy, and you don't have to lift heavy objects or do heavy manual labor, then fine.
Yeah, exactly. Let's go just completely apocalyptic, like worst case scenario about what neck fan represents in our culture, which is that you create your own microclimate, and it allows you to be marginally more comfortable.
And actually what you're doing is contributing to the pile of cheap crap in the world, which actually exacerbates our climate problems. And so it's us buying into a massive delusion.
What do you think about that? I think massive delusion is exactly the right way to put it. I thought you were going to say it's strong.
I thought you were going to go. No, no, no.
I mean, look, I'm literally wearing a neck fan right now. I think that this has some value.
But I think like to think about this gadget in terms of like cooling technology more broadly and especially air conditioning, the advent and rollout of air conditioning I think has had a wee bigger of an impact on American life and global life than I think a lot of people actually realize, right? So many of us just go from air conditioned homes toed homes to air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned offices, right? It's just like a string of AC. There's actually a lot of really interesting political science research on how the advent of AC abetted the boom across the Sun Belt that has like dramatically shaped American politics.
Like this one technology has both changed our country and just let us sort of live through this lie where we can just always be air conditioned. And I think that the neck fan is a next step in that where it's like for those few moments when you still have to be outside, you can just put on a little gadget and, you know, have your own little AC.
Got it. So in the mass shift that air conditioning has wrought, the neck fan just fills in the tiny holes.
And of course, like, I don't think AC is a bad thing, to be clear. I think AC is one of the greatest inventions of all time.
But it's also sort of abetted this way of thinking where we can just always AC our way out of hot weather, when of course, like, that's not true. So we are furthering the illusion that we control the climate and that there is nothing that's going to hurt us because we can constantly manage any of the negative consequences of climate change.
Yeah, that the solution to heat is always just, you know, one more gadget away. Right.
When actually what we're doing is exacerbating the problem by continuously buying gadgets. I think that's exactly right.
I mean, like, the energy effects of AC are extreme, and I don't think the neck fan is quite like that, of course. But it's all part of this way that these gadgets, sort of to use the term that we've been using a lot, junk, all of them just end up in landfills with batteries that are quite destructive for the environment.
They're full of all these minerals that have been mined, cobalt, nickel, they just pretty quickly end up in the trash because they either break or people decide they don't need them or you lose your charger, which is a huge problem in this era of rechargeable gadgets. You know, in the same way that fast fashion is all about like mindless consumption without thinking of the consequences of that, I think the neck fan is like the $4, you know, H&M t-shirt of gadgets.
Wow, you're really selling it here. Have you flung yours across the studio? I hate you, Nickman.
No, but I think this is actually helpful where it's like I feel really conflicted about this in a way that I waffle back and forth on in a lot of ways. Where I do think that this is junk.
It is not the answer, but also kind of is great, too. Maybe I'm like, maybe a better way of saying that is like, I feel like sometimes I'm the New York Times election needle when it comes to neck fans, where I bounce back between like how I feel about it.
It's like 48%, 49%. Yeah, exactly.
I mean, just so you're not alone. Like, that's basically the way everyone feels about an H&M t-shirt.
So it's not an unfamiliar feeling. You're like, well, it's cheap.
It's really nice. But I feel really bad.
Like, it's a common sentiment. Okay, the future that NAC fans are pointing to.
Have we turned the corner and now wearable technology is with us and cool? Cool. Both cools.
I don't think we've necessarily turned the corner on wearable technology, but I think that the future of wearables seems like more certain for these cooling gadgets, like the neck fan, that it does for something like the Vision Pro. Where there's all this hype around wearing these goggles all the time.
And actually, maybe that still might make sense in a really hot world where you can't go outside as often as you'd like. So you wear your Vision Pro and you pretend that you're on the beach or whatever.
But there's a lot of sort of hypotheticals along the way to that future. Whereas when I walk around near the office here in New York, I see neck fans like all the time.
They're inescapable. So it seems like the future of wearables is already this kind of technology.
Obviously, it's still early days for this category of gadget. At least, you know, people have held, you know, battery powered fans for forever or literally fan themselves.
But there's obviously going to be a lot of innovation here, too. So it's really like interesting to consider what this world might look like in 10 years or 15 years or 20 years.
In your research, did you come upon either an area or a gadget that you were like, yeah, that one. Like that's an area where people are going to do something or that's a gadget that's going to take off.
So Sony has already sold a V-neck undershirt that's also like a personal AC that literally you have like a button that you can use to control whether it heats you up or cools you down and you just wear it like an undershirt. I think that's like wild.
But what's like actually blew my mind even more than that was this company that sells, like, sort of like an e-watch that's supposed to be, like, a personal thermostat. But I could totally see more innovation in that direction.
Wow. You know what you've just done for me? I used to have a feminist rant about office air conditioning because it was forever set at a temperature that was more comfortable for men in suits.
And it used to drive me crazy, like having to bring my sweater to the office in the summer. Because of what you, the world you just described to me, I now love office air conditioning because I want a world where there's communal temperature.
Like I can't stand thisimate. Like, this endless ways in which we create our own, like, very personal, tailored climate.
It's like, you know, this Starbucks-ification of every damn thing. Like, I want it exactly how I want it, including climate.
There's probably a future in that realm where we all have, you know, ventiates with 30 atoms of uh caramel syrup or whatever right like say everyone wears neck fans maybe offices will just like decide to keep the temperature at like 77 degrees in the summer and everyone just has to cool themselves exactly so i don't know it's a weird future yeah yeah you'll have like micro oxygen too yeah right fun stuff all right so well thank you so much for uh painting us a future. Yeah, yeah.
You'll have like micro oxygen too. Yeah, right.
Fun stuff. All right, Sahil.
Well, thank you so much for painting us a future. Thanks for having me.
This episode of Radio Atlantic was produced by Kevin Townsend. It was edited by Claudina Bade and engineered by Rob Smirciak.
Claudina Bade is the executive producer for Atlantic Audio, and Andrea Valdez is our managing editor. I'm Hannah Rosen.
Thank you for listening. Hey, it's Hannah here.
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