Pear Ring and Pearfest: New dating trends for single millennials and Gen Z
Modern dating is rough. Sometimes I think that if it came down to choosing between spending an afternoon with Matt Hancock or spending an hour or so on Hinge, I’d pick the former. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t be thrilled about it, but I’d do it if it meant avoiding the black hole that is swipe city. So imagine my excitement when I came across a new product which is promising to completely disrupt the dating multiverse and make singlehood that bit easier.
Introducing the Pear Ring, a small turquoise band that is potentially about to completely change the way gen Zers, zillennials, and lower millennials mingle and match. This subtle piece of jewellery is out to make a big and splashy statement. As Pear sees it, “if 1.2 billion singles around the world wore a little green ring on their finger to show they’re single, we wouldn’t need dating apps. IRL connection is the mission.”
The general message seems to be that dating apps are inherently destroying the dating experience, and so Pear has tried to create a new way for singletons to identify one another and connect in a more organic way.
“In a bar, on a plane, at the gym, on a train, at work, walking the dog, at a wedding, in a club, on the tube, ordering a coffee, at the office, having a haircut, going for a run, playing tennis,” the gist is to simply pop this little blue ring on your finger, go out into the world and hopefully meet the one. While I’m not usually the optimistic type, it is a romantic fantasy.
The company’s website is definitely interesting—when you first try to access the page a small pop up screen asks you “are you single?” If you answer no, you’re immediately booted off the site and told “this is a product just for single people who are in a position to meet other people.” If you answer yes, you’re welcomed in and shown Pear’s primary landing page.
Once there, you’re given a pretty minute amount of information regarding the ring. The page is more so a visual experience than anything else. The product’s most interesting aspect definitely revolves around a highly mysterious event called PearFest.
As stated by the website, not only do 100 per cent of profits go towards “growing the social experiment around the world,” but anyone who purchases the ring (for the price of £19.99) automatically gets access to “a unique membership number,” is “invited to PearFest,” and will get access to “exclusive free events in [their] city.”
Now, this all sounds quite luxurious on the surface, however, we know very little about what PearFest actually entails and indeed what these mysterious “free events” might be. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but are we on the verge of witnessing a Fyre Festival part two? While it is possible that only those who purchase the ring are then able to access further information regarding the festival, it still feels strange that Pear would be so coy online about its events.
Another curious aspect of this entire story is the fact that the Pear Ring first went viral after social media publishers Pubity shared a paid partnership post on its feed, plugging the ring and hyping up the social experiment. Was this post the real reason that Pear has now reportedly sold 91 per cent of its stock? It’s of course possible that thousands of people legitimately bought into the idea and wanted to test drive this new dating technique, but the Pubity promotion is something to consider.
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Because we still know so little about the Pear Ring, and indeed the company behind it, we’re left speculating about a lot of things. Could this be the next big thing for single gen Zers? Or are we being sold a dream that’s never actually going to come to fruition? We’ll just have to wait and see.
