After my friend got engaged and had a 1.5-carat diamond, I started noticing engagement rings more. I recalled the times when my mom got oogley-eyed over 1-carat diamonds, but I quickly realized that the amazement over one carat in her day has progressed to an obsession over two-carat diamonds today, especially in New York. As they say, the bigger, the better. What was once considered a symbol to prove how much a man loved and could support a woman has now sadly become an item that is largely used for women’s comparison purposes against one another (and insecurity jogging).