Our inaugurate week of brand-spanking-new blog posts continues, with an opinion blog inviting reader response.
Today, we’d like to talk about Google’s latest attempt at making nerds look cool (aren’t we all ‘nerds’ at this point).
They’ve now come up with glasses that project a not-so-virtual reality, strategically placed, smack-dab in front of your screen-dependent face. These glasses open up a whole new world for the visually challenged: new ways to game, an industry from which Google may have gotten their inspiration, a continuation of SecondLife, only with real friends this time, and a full-on Google + advertisement, the brand’s real specialty.
Your new reality.
Many call this yet another of Google’s attacks on individual privacy, and it sure is hard to argue. From Gmail’s data sharing controversy in 2004, to Google Buzz’s automatic publicizing of user’s contacts, to Google Streetview data collection catching people unawares, to their recent privacy policy change affecting YouTube, Google search, Gmail, and Google +, the original start-up search engine has faced many a criticism for releasing unauthorized information about its users. But this is different - this one’s more about control than anything else. After all, Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, was quoted in a 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal as saying that “most people…want Google to tell them what they should be doing next”.
And Google seems to do a lot of strategic ad placing in general, so why not place a computer screen in front of your face 24/7? As if we couldn’t get any more distant - cell phones to AIM to Facebook to virtual reality in real life. We don’t really see how it could get much worse. I mean, just imagine it. We already drive in enclosed capsules called cars, or even more imposing, SUVs, with most interaction with other drivers kept to a stray middle finger here and there; or we ride in subways engrossed in our texts (no, not books, but messages) and cell phone conversations, hardly able to get distracted by real people sitting next to us unless they happen to shoulder-bump us into a brawl. Now we get to not only ignore our immediate surroundings even more, but Google’s YouTube video description has the double-o balls to call it “putting you back in the moment” (for the record, we appreciate all technological advances, as we would not be in business without them).
If it wasn’t weird enough that people would appear to be talking to themselves on their Bluetooth headsets way back in 2005, now they’ll be seeing things that aren’t really there. Wasn’t this once considered justification for institutionalization? Well, as the age-old adage goes, what’s old is new. For a world obsessed with friending, following, and connecting, we sure are making it increasingly more complicated to just hang out with each other. More than that, this generation has redefined the way people hang out - it’s not so much face-to-face as screen-to-screen.
It’s not breaking news that nerds have taken over the world, from Harvard drop-out Zuckerberg to NYU alum Dorsey to Stanford grads Page and Brin, so that old saying back in high school that you should treat the social outcasts nicely, as they may end up as your bosses, couldn’t be more true. Google’s latest nerd rescue gives a whole new meaning to face-to-face interaction. Smart as the new hot has never been so…real?
P.S. We love Google and we are all nerds here at XPAL Power. Much love.
Related Links
IdeaLab - Google Glasses with Prescriptions
Forbes - Battlefield 5 Concept
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