Is the laptop's fan supposed to start and stop very frequently?

"The fan is controlled by a thermal sensor.
When the upper edge is reached, the fan starts.
It is stopped when the lower threshold is reached by the cooling action.

So, frequent switching of the fan implies you are in a hot environment
(or your laptop vents are not properly ventilated (maybe you are using it on your bed).
The fan will trip on the higher temperatures,
start forcing the temperature down and,
when it sees sufficiently lower temperatures,
will turn off. But, the conditions may push the temperatures high again,
tripping it back into action.

This can also happen frequently when you are doing processor-intensive work.
If your mobile processor supports working at lower power/speed,
the processor intensive activity will push it into higher activity and cause more heating -- which could also trip the fans more often.

Laptop fans are designed to be started and stopped based on sensor data.
I do not think they will get more wear due to that (mine has been working for over 6 years now).
On the contrary, i suspect that a continuous drive might not be very good for the fans life (tho, I am sure there are arguments the other way too).

I think you should not worry too much about the fan.
Meanwhile, you could do something about ventilation and local temperatures to trigger it less often.

Along Jeff's notes, you could also use the SpeedFan app from Almico."

"It would help if you define 'all the time'

The reduction in battery consumption is probably enough justification to turn the fan on an off.

By the way, you may be thinking more of purely electronic components which are liable to fail when power cycled, but the fan is a motor (largely a mechanical component) and not susceptible to such problems.

Of course the fan is turned on and off by electronics, but that's not quite the same thing."

My computer fan use to speed up to top speed stops and start again in a minute or two. Now my computer tower has two fans one in the back and one inside, the one in the back I clean with the air spray the one on the inside which I never thought to clean was filthy dirty so I clean it with a cotton swabt Q-tip dip in alcohol and presto it stop. So try cleaning the inside fan no need to take it out just use the Q-tip and some alcohol for the hard spots. It work for me