Why It's Not Enough To Pop The Question With A Diamond

A diamond is no longer forever. Modern expectations for engagement rings have proven more fluid than the future heirlooms sought by earlier generations. Just like virtually every other purchase, diamond rings frequently change hands online. It’s still a shaky time for the diamond industry, but the ring market on EBay has grown 58% over the last five years, and digital jewellery consignment has become safer and more popular. The purchase of engagement rings has come under pressure, in part, from the shift by millennial shoppers. The 18 to 35 demographic is marrying older than GenXers and Baby Boomers. Millennial, famously, have less to spend in their twenties than prior generations did. Retailers are understandably concerned about the next generation’s approach. Kieron Hodgson, a commodities and mining analyst at Panmure Gordon & Co. said the traditional diamond engagement ring found at a conventional jeweler has been losing ground to vintage or bespoke alternatives. A ring from a big-name diamond retailer where mass-produced, identical rings line displays loses some luster in this context. “We’re seeing millennial want something that no one else has,” jewellery e-consigner Gleem & Co’s co-founder Casey Sullivan added. The 2016 Diamond Insight Report from De Beers estimated that millennial spent $26 billion on diamond jewellery across the United States, China, Japan, and India last year. But Hodgon noted that this includes a variety of diamond purchases, not just big-name retailer diamond rings. The reason for this, he said, is simple: The generation that doesn’t want to show up to a party wearing the same dress as anyone else also wants to put on different jewellery.

Mannequin Challenge Freezes The Internet

Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? Or the Harlem Shake? Planking? Lip Dubs? Another video meme has emerged to distract the internet. If you haven’t seen the Mannequin Challenge in your social media feeds, you probably will soon. In this latest viral video genre, groups of people are gathering and freezing themselves in place, often in elaborate poses and scenarios, as one camera-toting person walks through the scene to zoom in on the details. As is often the case, teenagers are leading the way. Many of the video are set to the song “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd, making it the unofficial anthem of the meme. The videos began to appear late last month online and by last weekend everyone from high school cheerleaders to the members of the erstwhile band Destiny’s Child had taken part. Beyonce Knowles’s video with former band mates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams features  Beyonce in the act of catching a ball from Michelle, while the ‘Dilemma’ singer brandishes a long blue balloon as a baseball bat as the trio stands in what appears to be Kelly’s son’s playroom.