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A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

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Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#161

Post by michael_h »

thechut wrote: post #154
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #121

I don't think the Walkman is a good comparison at all. Instead, look at the boom box. Big headphones today, or the Walkman in the 80s didn't invade someone else's space. They allow a person to withdraw. Boom boxes, and Google Glass, on the other hand, are explicitly outwardly focused. They force your presence upon others.

You clearly haven't used Google Glass. With the exception of the camera, everything is inward focused. Everything you do and see and interact with glass happens with only visibility to you. Nobody else can see what you are seeing. I wouldn't compare it to the boombox at all.

  With the exception of the camera...
The camera is a large part of what people are objecting to.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#162

Post by talmand »

resu_nimda wrote: post #93
TacticalCoder wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with what you say but you wrote: "Similarly, privacy is going away,..." Privacy is definitely going away in the public space. But I'm not so sure privacy in, well, the private space is going away. We may even see a movement --heck, it may even get a name one of these days-- for apartments and houses built in a way that some rooms get a "100% no intrusive technology inside" treatment. For example you…

Haha, I have the post-it, colored with sharpie to blend in because people pointed it out and chuckled at it. I really don't see a smartphone detector in the bathroom, but maybe you just turn it off, I don't think the bathroom is an issue. The bedroom maybe, but I would assume most smartphone owners sleep with theirs in the room, among other devices. The overall connectivity of households and their data to "the grid"…

I use black electrical tape.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#163

Post by aestra »

maxerickson wrote: post #53
resu_nimda wrote: post #44

I am actually pretty shocked at the responses here on HN, of all places. Not because, as technologists we should all automatically love any new technology, but because, as technologists we should have perspective on its inexorable march. How many times have we laughed at definitive statements, pontificating on this or that newfangled thing, that were proven to be wildly off-the-mark only a few years later? How many t…

I think the taboo will fade. I just hope the tech fades with it. Not away, but into the background. I'd rather have a pen that can draw a diagram on my workpiece tucked in my pocket than I would some geegaw strapped to my head all the time.

Remember how dumb people used to look walking around with bluetooth headsets? Especially weird when they were holding a conversations and looked like they were talking to themselves? Has the taboo really faded with that?

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#164

Post by aestra »

tikhonj wrote: post #15
aresant wrote: post #6

I disagree that people will become comfortable with Google Glass - the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you (that may or may not be recording). To which the analogy vs. headphones is not relevant. I anticipate, however, that Google (or somebody) will find a way to make this product largely invisible to anybody but the wearer in the near term future. Through m…

And yet most people don't have that reaction to pervasive CCTV. Which, in some places, is virtually omnipresent and constantly recording. "Smile, you're on camera ☺" And many people have no qualms sharing pretty much everything on Facebook and the like. I don't know which way it will really go, but it is really not obvious a priori that everyone is that concerned about privacy, or that society will not adapt to make…

Most people I believe (rightly or wrongly) think that CCTV are a presence that isn't a threat because the footage doesn't usually live forever, and usually is only used for when something negative happens (such as a crime).

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#165

Post by aestra »

hangonhn wrote: post #8
aresant wrote: post #6

I disagree that people will become comfortable with Google Glass - the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you (that may or may not be recording). To which the analogy vs. headphones is not relevant. I anticipate, however, that Google (or somebody) will find a way to make this product largely invisible to anybody but the wearer in the near term future. Through m…

Totally agree. I refuse to talk to anyone with one of those on. It's not only creepy but also really unfair. It also throws the whole concern of private conversations out the door. Get rid of the camera but keep the glass. Maybe then we will be more comfortable.

Weirdly, when I was in 7th or 8th grade I thought it would be a neat idea to put an audio tape recorder (the cassette type, remember those?) in my bookbag and record the audio of my entire day at school. I have no idea why I thought this was a neat idea. I don't believe I still have this tape, and if I recall the audio wasn't very clear.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#166

Post by aestra »

rdl wrote: post #9

Big difference IMO is that the Glass is worn, and even more, is worn on the face, specifically around the eyes. Remember how douchey the bluetooth headset people were? Very small by comparison, and that was mostly hidden if you had long hair, or were viewed directly from the front. The Pebble is about the limit, which is why the wrist-computer thing is so interesting, even though it doesn't provide a huge amount of n…

>or in a car

We don't need more distracted drivers.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#167

Post by mwfunk »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #63

I'm not sure why people worry about social acceptability so much. Mainstream opinion is basically that of sheep. I'm old enough to remember when the Internet use had a significant social stigma. Now teenage girls gorge themselves on it in public. The same people who'd be so quick to judge now keep their mouths shut. What changed? Oh, right: absolutely nothing.

When was there ever a widespread social stigma associated with Internet use? This is not something that ever existed, so it's probably not a good analogy.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#168

Post by aestra »

sendob wrote: post #122
ewoodrich wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not as annoying as the self involved people who go around talking into a plastic brick in public. Normally we only excuse schizophrenics of talking to inanimate objects.

I have a bluetooth headset for making phone calls more safely with my older car (not capable of interfacing directly with my phone), and I don't agree with demonizing headset users, but the biggest issue that I personally found was related to the fact that the headsets were hard to see. Making it unclear when someone was talking on a call or to those around them. The headphones with mics, I find them to be less of an…

>I have a bluetooth headset for making phone calls more safely with my older car (not capable of interfacing directly with my phone),

You are certainly not being any safer. The act of engaging in a phone call is what is distracting, not holding a device. Don't kid yourself.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/06/12/aaa-study-usi...

http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/sci/0701/blcellphone70...

http://www.alertdriving.com/home/fleet-alert-magazine/north-...

http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2013/03/14/look-no-hands-is...

Further, nobody is talking about people who use these technologies in private, they are talking about people who are using them in public.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#169

Post by MatthiasP »

People still go to greath lengths to get rid of their optical glasses even though those were around for hundreds of years now, are widely-used and are usually associated with positive attributes like intellectuality. For me that's the strongest indicator that anything similar to Google Glass will never become mainstream. Attractiveness beats out easier access to information any day.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#170

Post by hangonhn »

kibibu wrote: post #91
hangonhn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. I refuse to talk to anyone with one of those on. It's not only creepy but also really unfair. It also throws the whole concern of private conversations out the door. Get rid of the camera but keep the glass. Maybe then we will be more comfortable.

Pull out your smartphone and record them through it while talking

That my friend is both brilliant and hilarious.
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