The Evolution of Jewelry…For Phones?

Leave it to the Japanese to make use of every available nook and cranny to make something cuter. It’s way beyond customizing the phone cover you already have – it’s inventing new jewelry that originally served no other purpose than adding character. Enter: the phone charm.

Considering the human tendency to decorate *everything* (Bedazzled jeans, anyone?), it’s only natural that we would come up with endlessly creative versions of our necessary accessories like phone covers.  And with the rise in status from convenience tool to near body-part that our phones have quickly assumed, I suppose it is also only natural that we’ve invented jewelry just for them.  I just didn’t think it would be so…elaborate.  Here’s the first and simplest iteration of the phone’s own “necklace.”
 

Full Circle Cell Phone Charm by BeInspiredDesigns

 
On a lanyard reminiscent of camera hand straps – back when people carried actual cameras.  But this is where it gets interesting: Have you ever thought, “Gee, there’s a sad and empty hole at the top/bottom of my phone for headphones.  Why don’t I stick something pretty in there when I’m not using it for music?”  Yeah, I never thought that, but someone did.  So now the necklace becomes a “piercing.”

 
Then human ingenuity took off and decided, “Well, it’s pretty, but why can’t it be functional, too?”  And so we end up with a charm that looks cute and attractively (or tackily) alerts us to new phone notifications – the latest and greatest in phone couture electronique.

19/366 by Lo8i

 
I can’t help but draw a parallel between this evolution of phone decoration and the extension of our own self-image.  Phones were originally tools of convenience, but they evolved to become the center of our sense of connection.  They became, if you’ll excuse the metaphor, another face to represent us in society.  Through this evolving jewelry, we celebrate both the chance to extend to that face our own personalities and to give that face its own unique personality.

Oh, and yes, geeks – that’s a light-up, spinning Tardis.  You can have one, too.

What are your thoughts on the decorations we give our gadgets?  Is there anything you’re waiting to see?

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