Future Google Glass Users: Assholes waiting in the Wings?
I stumbled across this article today, and while I'm not totally against the idea of the Google Glass (I personally won't get one because I don't need the newest technology and I don't think I'd get enough use out of it to justify the price) I think the writer raises some good points about its potential to ruin what we think of as social interaction:
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We don't know the price yet. All we know is how much the developer previews were sold for.
I found his point about early cell phone users interesting. I think it raises the question whether these early adopters were just a byproduct of the change or instrumental in it.
In essence his point seems to be the status quo of social interactions is always acceptable and those going against that status quo are ******* right until they aren't anymore cause the status quo changed (the question is when is that? 20% of people? 30%? Less? More?)
I do think that these kinds of hardware advancements do raise a lot of question about our current social standards, but I'm sure that a new standard will emerge if it becomes popular. (perhaps taking off your wearable computing, or perhaps everyone getting over it in time)
His main point seems to be that users of Google Glass shouldn't be surprised if their gadgets make people around them feel uncomfortable, and that we shouldn't accept any new technology uncritically just because it promises to change the world, even if the change may be inevitable. Essentially: fine, you can change the rules and standards of privacy and social interaction, but I don't have to like it.
I personally don't want to talk to someone for five minutes only to realize that they were browsing instagram the entire time and not listening to a single word I said--people are already awful listeners as it is.
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Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
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-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
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Yikes. I feel more and more like those people who believe that having a photograph of them taken means their soul is being stolen. Time to prepare the bag to wear over my head for some frickin' privacy.
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I for one would be flattered if my nudes ended up on a porn site. I mean, I go nude in public quite often, hoping that people have their smartphones handy to capture my raw animal power.
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“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
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I don't think his point is so qualified. Rather he seems to draw very absolute lines of what is good and bad. No one is making like anything, but he is actively attacking people with a different POV.
Sure, that isn't an issue with Google Glass's implementation as you can tell when someone interacts with the screen, but I can see your point. However, conversely one might argue that the idea that another person has to give you their attention is just as self centered as not giving that attention.
I agree, he's definitely approaching it tendentiously, and a lot of it is just based on his opinions, but I don't think he tries to set himself up as any kind of academic authority, nor did I try to present him as such.
There's a difference between walking up to someone and unilaterally starting a conversation and then getting offended when they don't give you their attention and being offended when a friend or someone who engages you in conversation proceeds to browse with their Google Glass while you're talking, this is something I see happening once it becomes commonplace. I don't think it's unreasonable or self-centered to expect people to pay attention to you if they engage you in conversation. Pretending to speak with someone while doing something else can be more rude than just telling them to leave you alone--I say this as someone who unfortunately does this all the time, especially to my family members.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
Last edited by Omega Vision on May 16th, 2013 at 09:44 PM
Gender: Unspecified Location: With Cinderella and the 9 Dwarves
Fair enough.
I agree with that. The situation is obviously important in judging what is rude. And I guess I agree that it may make it somewhat easier to just goof of and not pay attention (but we see that already with people on phones at "inappropriate" times). I still think social etiquette will evolve to accomodate changes in technology.
The not paying attention part I see as a smaller problem there, as it does happen already and you'll be able to tell whether someone pays attention to you or not (at the latest when you ask them a question).
The ubiquity and especially the secrecy of taking photos will be the problem I'd be more interested to see. But regardless of google glass (where you can still "solve" the problem by asking people to take them off) it seems highly like that constant camera availability (maybe even constant filming) is inevitable in the long run.
This conversation makes me think of the Bruce Willis movie Surrogates. I currently see many people walking around tourist areas taking photos & updating their Facebook status and not really paying attention to anyone around them nevermind the location, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon etc, now that behavior pisses me off.
I'm not entirely sure what affect Google glass will have on that situation but it does make me think of Surrogates somewhat.
I have a feeling that Google glass''ll be an equalizer of sorts when it comes to the genders for guys and the dating/relationship realm ruled by women.
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Running for pubic...I mean public office anytime soon?
I'm curious, as well. What does this mean? I was thinking you meant something like a drop in false rape reports or something but a second reading of your post makes that seem like an unlikely statement.
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May 16th, 2013 02:44 PM
