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Explanation: The De Beers mining company has controlled a large share of the world diamond market for ~150 years now, and has leveraged that share of the diamond supply to convince the world that they’re ultra-rare and valuable, far beyond other gemstones. In the 1950s, they doubled down on this scam, launching a marketing campaign to establish diamonds as the new ‘norm’ for engagement rings and the like.
The Millennial generation born in the 80s and 90s have had less interest in diamond rings than previous generations, like so many other industries, we are blamed for the decline of a fad.
[laughs maliciously in Millennial]
Not just “rare” but synthetic diamonds are simply perfect and cheaper. DeBeers can kick it and no one will notice.
Vapour phase deposition techniques have made mineral gemstones wonderfully available. If I had just a little bit more spare cash, I would buy my D&D table real jems to use in game.
Is there anything that Gen Y can’t ruin if they set their minds to it? /s
Pumping a few millions into TikTok ads or buying a bunch influencers or whatever will surely solve this “problem” though, I’m afraid …
It might, if everybody weren’t already broke.
Im genz but i def buy diamonds, i just make sure to buy lab grade diamonds. They are cheaper, sparkle more, and are just as if not stronger. Plus conflict free.
Based choice, defeating greed with science 💪
Moissanite is a good lab grade alternative and has a much higher brilliance. It’s not cheap, so if the symbolism of price is what you are after without most of the diamond bullshit, it’s got you covered. (It’s silicon carbine and rare in nature; still much cheaper than diamonds though.)
Stay away from natural ones (if you can even get them?) as they may be found as a byproduct of diamond mining. Otherwise, you are just going to find grains of it from meteorites. (That’s just a quick summary; there is a bit more to them so do your research.)
Plus we can make diamonds now, so there’s no good reason to be plundering the earth and ruining laborers’ lives to get the ones in the ground.
We couldn’t afford them even if we wanted to buy them.
