Would You Wear A Ring That Signifies You’re Single?

One woman shares why she said yes.

Not long ago I saw, while scrolling Instagram, a targeted advertisement that felt rather targeted. The sponsored post was for a coloured band known as a Pear ring, designed to be worn to signify the wearer is single. How did Instagram know I’m single? I’m not really sure. I don’t pretend to understand how deeply Facebook ads run. Is Meta listening to me, reading my newsletter? Probably. I’m not in a position to work that out, nor do I feel compelled to try. 

But a few days later, I shared a creative writing class with a young woman named Maggie. While I was supposed to be listening to Maggie talking about Adorno’s ideas of the function and form of the intellectual essay, I was instead focused on the ring on her finger. It’s a particular colour (somewhat ironically, a Tiffany & Co. blue…) so it wasn’t difficult to spot and I asked her about it.