the.com/bubble wrap

means A plastic sheet studded with sealed air-filled bumps, used to cushion fragile items in shipping — and to compulsively pop under idle thumbs.

from Invented in the late 1950s by two engineers trying to make textured plastic wallpaper by sealing two shower-curtain-style sheets together with trapped air bubbles. The wallpaper flopped, but they soon repurposed the material — first pitched as greenhouse insulation, then as packaging cushioning, which is where it finally stuck. The brand name Bubble Wrap later became the generic term for the stuff, the way Kleenex did for tissues.