The Charm Of Social Media

Living in a society where faith and religion are becoming less and less prevalent it is hard to find something to believe in. My social media jewelry is an expression of how deep rooted and entrenched social media has become in our society. The average university student visits Facebook daily, it has become a ritual like praying or attending church. By comparison, how often does the average university student attend any sort of religious gathering? The new religion is freedom of speech and information, and it’s happening online in social media forums. The charms are meant to commemorate and celebrate the preciousness of the open forums that have been created by social media.

Contemporary Social Media Jewelry Research

I’ve been playing around with the idea that social media is like a new religion for my generation. Growing up nonreligious I never went to church, prayed, or thanked the lord. I did however, have a computer in my house for as long as I can remember. From about the age I could see over a table I was booting up dos and typing in passwords and codes. As a child I spent Sundays in my pj’s playing games on the computer and eventually made my way to AOL chat rooms and surfing the web. I’ve begun to think about the way religion is symbolized in our daily lives. One of the main themes I’ve found is jewelry. People adorn their bodies with crucifixes displayed on bracelets, rosary beads, and necklaces. Jewelery often symbolizes things, ideas, and people that we are close to us. Lockets are worn with pictures of people we love. We keep charm bracelets that can display gifts from many people to remind us of the ones we love. My hope is to create a jewelry line using symbols of social media to represent our closeness to social media. Facebook and Twitter may not be new religions, but they are an unbiased forum for people to share thoughts, ideas, and moments in life. Social media forums do not exist in the physical form of a building. My hope is that this jewelery will represent the preciousness of our new found communication. Below are some pieces I have found for inspiration.

(images from etsy.com )

I have been influenced by Tatty Devine, a London jewelry company that uses perspex to create contemporary charms for their jewelry line. I like the idea of using perspex because it comes in many colors and there are few limitations to the form. Also, I can cut the designs perfectly using a laser cutter in the university workshop. Below are a few pieces from the Tatty Devine website. Stay tuned to see my finished designs, you just might be able to them soon!

SNEAK PREVIEW :
The TwitteRing