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Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#491

Post by lewisflude »

sneak wrote: post #419
lewisflude wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not married, but engaged! I ended up buying a diamond on James Allen (they allow you to select earth created or lab created). They allege their mined diamonds are "conflict free" https://www.jamesallen.com/education/diamonds/grading-confli... . However, my feeling is I don't trust this 100%, and for my SO having a "real diamond" meant a lot. For me, in this case, the need to get a "real diamond" for my SO trumped my…

> However, my feeling is I don't trust this 100%, and for my SO having a "real diamond" meant a lot. For me, in this case, the need to get a "real diamond" for my SO trumped my ethical stance on where the diamond was sourced. Lab grown diamonds are real diamonds. There is a simple, easy, and cost-effective solution to the problem you seem to have skipped over here.

I agree with you, which is why I put real diamond in quotes here. Lab or earth grown, both are real. Sadly, not everyone sees lab grown as having as much desirability as earth grown diamonds. While I would be open to receiving a lab diamond, I've met many people for whom it would be seen as a budget option.

Although through an objective lens they are the same, for a lot of people there is an emotional difference between buying (or receiving) a lab grown vs earth grown diamond which means they can't be treated like-for-like in every situation.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#492

Post by toast0 »

saberdancer wrote: post #429
akarma wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many women won't directly tell their partner "I want you to spend a couple months' salary on a beautiful diamond" because it's tasteless to request and it removes all the meaning behind the man doing so, but they'd also be disappointed if the man didn't do so unprompted. People and their emotions are complex like that. I don't think there's any glaring issue with either party above, but it's like you expect all women…

It's like typical "I don't need anything for my birthday". Even the most rational people tend to get disappointed if they really get nothing.

I try to tell people I don't have a birthday anymore. Because if I tell people not to get me anything, sometimes they hear please get me something. Ugh.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#493

Post by Scheherazade »

dkarras wrote: post #455
danbruc wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently a lab grown diamond meant my love for her was also artificial [...] Why then a ring [with a diamond] at all? It's nothing special at all, just what everyone does. Almost the definition of replaceability and arbitrariness. There is no connection between the relationship and a random ring with a stone you buy at some random jewelry store. Why not something individual, specific to the relationship? Every $1 t…

It is not a rational argument, result of some cultural indoctrination. Media, friends, peers... Everyone is susceptible to such influence to some degree but not aware. Still, must be sad to witness.

Yes, seeing an otherwise healthy, and free-thinking human being turn through their behaviour into almost a sub-sentient machine running pre-programmed scripts, would errode a bit of the soul in almost everyone. As some of their childhood naivete is forever extinguished. At least now they’ve gained through this experience a deeper perception of the true nature of reality.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#494

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

ask_b123 wrote: post #423
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money, Children and Infidelity. Children also includes weirdly a large subset on how to raise children (when marrying someone of a different faith)

Is this a book or a set of books or a study? Could you please tell me who is the author?

These were the most common before no-fault divorce became the common cause so they used to come from court filings.

In these days, some of them come from marriage counseling statistics undertaken during divorce (some states require it before disolving a marriage).

There is some specific research from small N groups where N=52 for example (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4012696/)

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#495

Post by lewisflude »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #103
lewisflude wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "you" here is someone buying a mined diamond. I would imagine you're right on status being one of the top reasons someone buys a diamond in the first place. There's other reasons (aesthetics, tradition), but I think the earth diamonds status as a rare expensive thing and it's artificial scarcity is what keeps them so desireable.

Yes, so my point is it does not have much to do with the story of the diamond.

I'd argue that the fact that they're rare, special things found in the earth is a big part of the story. At least from people I've talked to who prefer earth grown diamonds, this is something that's come up multiple times.

However, people always turn a blind eye to the part of the story that involves cruelty, which is largely down to De Beers excellent marketing and creation of artificial scarcity.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#496

Post by RobertKerans »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #406
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

Well, if you ever want an example of advertising working... (I realise it plays enormously on preexisting traditional cultural notions of value, but still, as mentioned, de Beers did quite the job). I had similar conversations pre-engagement, but felt forced into a real diamond once the time actually came.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#497

Post by lewisflude »

Nursie wrote: post #110
lewisflude wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to sound like I'm apologising for the industry. I agree with you, the general population don't care about the geology of diamonds. But there's definitely this feeling that lab grown diamonds are seen as this "other" thing that "isn't real" and I think that largely stems from this mythical idea of diamonds being rare things that are found in the earth. I think it's quite common knowledge that diamonds wer…

I agree that the general population sees the ones dug out of the ground as "real" right now. I think the story being paid for is the DeBeers story though, of diamonds and marriage being inseperable, I don't think many people consider much where they came from, or consider the "rare thing dug up out of the ground" part of it particularly important in itself. I guess I'm splitting hairs, yes there is definitely a cultu…

Semi-related, but here's an interesting fact, De Beers (the company that popularised diamonds for engagement rings, hoards a huge supply, and creates artificial scarcity) has also invested heavily in lab grown diamonds: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-29/de-beers-...

They've been doing this to try and undercut lab diamond growing company's in an attempt to retain control of the diamond market in an era where lab diamonds are becoming more and more popular as people consider their ethical choices.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#498

Post by NikolaeVarius »

symlinkk wrote: post #474
washadjeffmad wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

I don’t see what’s so hard to understand. The entire point of buying a ring is that you’re showing her how much you care by spending a bunch of money on something special. Instead, you decided to save money and get something that’s not as special, and that hurt her feelings.

The point is that its fucking stupid and a corporate mind game that is trivial to see through.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#499

Post by [deleted] »

ModernMech wrote: post #420
hobs wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Don't apply logic to fashion choices Fast fashion is literally harming the earth, screw everyone who says that and thinks about that, I absolutely reject it and we SHOULD apply logic to fashion choices that directly harm us and our planet.

You can say the same thing about fast technology. There are mountains of discarded gadgets from just last year filled with toxic materials that first had to be mined from the Earth, and now are polluting the Earth.

[deleted]

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#500

Post by tiborsaas »

anoncake wrote: post #347
tiborsaas wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at a fraction of the cost That might also be the reason. If something is cheaper, it feels inferior. Also with diamonds it's probably a factor that the fiancé is expected to present serious intents with a deeper monetary investment. "Look honey, it's an ethical, clean diamond and only cost 1/20th of a dirty one" sad, but feels wrong. Edit: I also remember a guy at dinner party bragging about buying a 5000EUR ring,…

Buy 20 then. I wonder if there's a way to tastefully put them all on a single ring.

A friend of mine lost the fist one so he had to go back the same day to the same shop :)
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