Glass impacts its user negatively. Josh Lowensohn simply describes the product in his article about Google Glass, restating that anyone can buy it but failing to pause and wonder: what dreams may come? He fails to pause and consider the negative aspects of the tech tool in relation to ...
Google Glass sold to the public can end up in the hands of those who do and don’t really know how to use it. For $1500 though, you’d assume that people who know how to use would be the primary buyers. Lowensohn does fail to ask “what dreams may come?” and while I see your views on business control by Google, privacy issues, and ads, I propose a rebuttal to your post.
A Price For Use
Using Google services, like any other medium such as Facebook or Twitter, requires the user to understand that privacy is relinquished. That is a fact we must accept when using these services. Companies exist for profit. As Robert McChesney, author of Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning The Internet Against Democracy states, media firms have no incentive to upgrade the tastes of the audience; they take the market as they find it (McChesney 75).
Your notion of a nightmare or a dream (Kelly) is a valid concern but we need to influence the potential for Google Glass as positively as we can in order for it to succeed.
Look At It This Way
Glass doesn’t need to exist; there’s plenty of other tools that we could use or that could be made one day. But it was a “dream” in a sense, of Google’s developers to make a product that people might want and might use. Google has led people into a world that’s reinforced their preferences and is expanding on those ideas to meet people’s needs (McChesney 9)
Rather than condemn Google Glass for its invasion of privacy, we must hold it accountable and regulate how people use it (MacKinnon 173). It “may be brought to a whole other level” but what hasn’t already? All social media sites like MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook are intrusive. Online searches for public records and housing information are easily gotten as well by people who know what they’re doing.
Ads Impose Because Marketing Is Valuable
As irritating as ads might be, they promote a level of desire that gets our interest or snub. They are a part of life in every imaginable way. There is no escape from them. Ads are tailored yes, but if you were running a company and trying to sell a new product, how would you do that?
If there were no ads for anything how could we get info and stay updated at all? They’ve become a necessary part of life in order for companies to sell and consumers to be interested. People grow and change over time and don’t want the same things. Google knows how much this is important to our interest and their survival.
Google Glass may be new and popular now but what about the Oculus Rift that Facebook is hoping to launch or Amazon drone delivery system? There’s always something new that’s going to come into the picture.
Urge Regulation To Combat Injustice
Rebecca MacKinnon, author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom, emphasizes that accountability and concern go hand in hand because we need to protect ourselves. Google Glass isn’t a necessity for life but the rights of the people who do and do not use it must be equally protected.
The injustice that can come from using Google Glass is negative but Glass impacting its users negatively, as you begin with, is not all there is.
Glass Is Valuable For Public And Personal Use
Google Glass is not evil or negative itself; the intent by the user is what defines the product. It isn’t a spying tool as it sits right above the eye (Ulanoff). It has many practical uses like assisting in surgery, photography, video recording of memories, navigation, translating foreign languages, and even cabin crew information for flight attendants (Haworth).
User feedback on Google Glass is what will determine the future of its tech life. Like cell phones and video game consoles, it is not entirely negative to the user experience. As more than just a tool built by a company, Google Glass offers the material to create change. Perhaps we could even use Glass to improve the human experience by uniting people rather than dividing.
We aren’t just cogs in a machine because we choose to buy this product or not. Glass is just another example of a product that could convince someone to be this way. But fundamentally it’s no different from the other tech buys we’ve made that help us live or do something in our life.
Works Cited
Kelly, Katy. “Selling Google Glass to the Populace: What Dreams May Come?” Where Are We Headed? Tumblr . N. p., 14 May 2014.
McChesney, Robert W. Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet Against Democracy. The New Press, 2013. Print.
MacKinnon, Rebecca. Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom. 1st ed. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2012. Print.
Ulanoff, Lance. “This Is Why Google Glass Is the Future.” Mashable. Op-Ed. N. p., 20 Apr. 2013. Web. 14 May 2014.
Haworth, Jessica. “From Filming Yourself Having Sex to Helping Your Golf: 7 Weird and Wonderful Uses for Google Glass.” Mirror. N. p., 9 May 2014. Web. 14 May 2014.
















