“For much of 2013, I wore the future across my brow, a true Glasshole peering uncertainly into the post-screen world,” Mat Honan reports for Wired. “Here’s what I learned.”
“Glass is socially awkward. Again and again, I made people very uncomfortable. That made me very uncomfortable,” Honan reports. “People get angry at Glass. They get angry at you for wearing Glass. They talk about you openly. It inspires the most aggressive of passive aggression. Bill Wasik refers apologetically to the Bluedouche principle. But nobody apologizes in real life. They just call you an asshole.”
“The few times I’ve seen multiple people wearing Glass in public, they’ve kept to self-segregated groups,” Honan reports. “At the party, but not of it. Worse is the evangelism, full of wide-eyed enthusiasm that comes across as the arrogance of youth and groupthink,” Honan reports. “It has its own lingo, its own social norms, and of course you must pay top dollar to enter.”
“My Glass experiences have left me a little wary of wearables because I’m never sure where they’re welcome. I’m not wearing my $1,500 face computer on public transit where there’s a good chance it might be yanked from my face. I won’t wear it out to dinner, because it seems as rude as holding a phone in my hand during a meal. I won’t wear it to a bar. I won’t wear it to a movie. I can’t wear it to the playground or my kid’s school because sometimes it scares children,” Honan reports. “It is pretty great… as long as you are not around other people, or do not care when they think you’re a knob. When I wear it at work, co-workers sometimes call me an asshole. My co-workers at WIRED, where we’re bravely facing the future, find it weird. People stop by and cyber-bully me at my standing treadmill desk. Do you know what it takes to get a professional nerd to call you a nerd? I do. (Hint: It’s Glass.)”
“You can make fun of Glass, and the assholes (like me) who wear it. But here’s what I know: The future is on its way, and it is going to be on your face,” Honan reports. “We need to think about it and be ready for it in a way we weren’t with smartphones. Because while you (and I) may make fun of glassholes today, come tomorrow we’re all going to be right there with them, or at least very close by. Wearables are where we’re going. Let’s be ready.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
I wear glasses because I have to; I don’t know a lot of people that wear them that don’t have to. They want them to be light and unobtrusive and reflect their fashion… I think from a mainstream point of view [glasses as wearable computing devices] are difficult to see. I think the wrist is interesting. The wrist is natural. – Apple CEO Tim Cook, May 28, 2013
Related articles:
Why an Apple iWatch has better chances than Google Glass – November 6, 2013
Apple’s Siri lambastes Google Glass – August 26, 2013
Google Glass ban list grows; top 10 places banning Google Glass – August 7, 2013
I used to think the same of Bluetooth headsets. Idiots walking around seemingly talking to themselves and looking like lieutenant Uhura with her earpiece.
I still do.
I still do, and I don’t see jerks like that as much as I used to. In the end, those things never caught on with the majority. Wearing a Bluetooth headset in public and talking out loud is still considered douche behavior. So why does this blogger just assume that cyborg TV glasses are going to be next smartphone? Wishful thinking on his part.
Smartphones solved a problem, actually a ton of problems. By giving us access to the internet on the go, suddenly we had access to whatever information we needed, whenever we needed it. That’s why they caught on.
Google Glass doesn’t solve a single problem. Sure, it lets you do certain things hands-free, but that’s just adding a small amount of convenience to something we can do already. As the Bluetooth headset demonstrates, that isn’t enough for the public to adopt it wholesale.
——RM
Perhaps the BT headsets did not catch with the general public but they sure caught on in call centers, reception desks, stock pits, etc. where having both hands free allows the user to speak over a line and work efficiently w/o being tied down to a wired phone device. The same thing will happen for Google Glass like devices.. Think of it as the analogy of going from feature phones to smartphones.. More useful for a wider user base.
Yep, that’s also what happened to Segways: Never caught on with the public like they were meant to, but they get used in specific areas, like getting around huge warehouses. That’s what I can imagine happening with Google Glass. You’ll never see crowds of people walking around with the device, but it will find its niche with certain people who need continous online access, while walking around, at work.
——RM
These will not be a big seller. Many establishments have already banned them. Women won’t buy them. People go to great lengths to avoid wearing glasses and there’s a big difference between wearing a $5 pair of fake glasses and these for $1000+. Even now if someone is taking pictures of kids you can call the cops and they will check their camera to see if they were photographing kids.
These things will fail. The author has already shown them to be socially awkward. You won’t be allowed to wear them in your bank, jewelry store, or mall. Some criminal will use them to diagnose the institutions security. Then they won’t be allowed at schools and campuses. Somebody will film you and email HR at work. Or, put a video on YouTube about company practices all too easily. So, they’ll be banned at work and in meetings. You might as well leave them at home with your 3D glasses by the TV. Oh, “anyone can already do those things!” you say? Not with the ease these things provide. Just wait for the first movie comes out supposedly using such tech….
this Google Glass thing tells a lot about Google:
Google really does not believe in the IDEA of PRIVACY (and thats scary)
see past history and M.O:
1) google had trucks scanning neighbourhoods to pick up private Wi-Fi info. It said because the idiots didn’t have it secured they had a right to it to ‘improve their services’. google: “Privacy? WTF is that?”
Then when the furor exploded they claimed they it was ‘accidental’. this ‘accidental’ thing was brought to court in SEVERAL countries… (accidents happen to google frequently all over the place, see below… )
2) it stole from Apple info about the iPhone. Jobs treated the Goog boys as friends and mentored them and had Schmidt on Apple’s board YET they freely stole from him (morally it didn’t bother them at all, Goog has a RIGHT to all info … )
3) they stole copyrighted artists stuff: books, photos etc to put on their websites resulting in numerous lawsuits.
4) they freely admit they scan emails, web searches etc to build a profile of people
5) they had NSA write code for android. Google (which proudly claims to have the largest number of geek Phds software engineers working for them, the self proclaimed leader of intelligent software like A.I robotics etc ) said they ‘needed help’ in writing code for Android… Apple does not allow any outside agencies to write code for them.
6) Now they spent millions building Google Glass..
Because of their Companies M.O (and the arrogance of the Google boys, billionaires from college who believe they can do whatever they like) they have this lacuna about privacy.
Google really does not believe in privacy, it does not understand it, the entire foundation of their billion dollar business is the INVASION of privacy. Google: “your privacy is worth nothing, it can be violated at will by us to make us rich”
they are so arrogant and used to this attitude is why they built google glass without even thinking that people are going to have social problems with it (“hey what is privacy?” Sergey, Page and the Mole have no clue. )
And somehow I have a sneaking suspicion that in their secret labs the mole people are working unthinkable wonders, conjuring the terrible future, bringing shambling creatures to life — without reflexion or shame — all their inventions constrained only by the principle that keeps the whole mad enterprise alive: a business model that harvests and sells people to ad agencies.
The future is for Google, not only because of the Glass but they innovate more, are more active in different industries. future repeat itself but this time Steve cannot come back,…
The future is for Google? Why? Your premise is flawed if their innovation is built on immorality, theft, and the violation of the trust of their customers and business partners. Their motto of “Do no evil” is null and void if they do not know the meaning of the words contained in it. They have been demonstrating that they do not by their actions.
Let me guess, I won’t be able to use Youtube anymore unless I log in via Google Glass? #oldesttrickinthebook
Stand in a line of people in just about any major metropolitan area in the world and you’ll see the same thing: slouched shoulders and down-turned faces staring glumly at smartphone screens. Some people never look away, completely immersed in whatever is happening in the palm of their hands, while others get stuck in a loop of pulling phones from pockets or purses and popping on the screens for just a moment before putting them away again for just a minute or two.
Smartphones are amazing things, but for those who have become addicted to messaging instant gratification, they are a bit unwieldy. This annoyance gets even worse as these devices grow larger and larger. One approach would be to relax a little and stop feeling so compelled to check for Facebook notifications every 30 seconds. Those fully immersed in the information age, however, will be more inclined to fix the physical inconveniences presented by the problem. A heads-up display seems like a natural fit, and thus we have Google Glass. It’s a headset with a projected display, a camera and a data connection that could revolutionize the mobile device industry. It could also cause a public uproar over privacy concerns. Is the potential worth the risk? Join us after the break to see.