What's so cool about Mason Jars Anyway.

So I'm not really sure I can get away with analyzing this for our material culture post, but I'm going to try anyway.
I would like to take a second to acknowledge the bizarre mason jar phenomena.

What started as a purely convenience based way for mostly farmers to keep track of what they grew and what they could cook with has turned into some crazy hip-kid drinking device which litter the dorm rooms of many a claremont college student (myself not excluded). It is kind of bizarre that these simple, logical self-sealing jars used largely by working folks have now been imbued with some kind of social capital for the assumedly privileged, young, hip masses who, I can only imagine, are not using them for their original farming-friendly purposes. This is such a sweeping trend around a certain demographic in the US that when I googled mason jars results came up like, "Mason Jars: Ruining the wedding decorating industry?" Yipes. 

Have I piqued your interest? Here's a pretty good history: http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/more_than_you_probably_ever_cared_to_know_about_ball_jars_aka_mason_jars_24753.asp