

Google Explains How Not To Be A Glasshole - WestCoastJustin
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/18/google-explains-how-not-to-be-a-glasshole/

======
simonsarris
The article doesn't mention it, but here's the Penny Arcade[1] comic (from
back in May) titled "Glasshole", which illustrates why many people are
uncomfortable about Google Glass users:

[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/14](http://www.penny-
arcade.com/comic/2013/06/14)

I don't think this list (never mind the tech-crunch article, the real list
from Google is here[2]) really mitigates this fundamental issue.

> Be patient and explain that Glass has a lot of the same features as a mobile
> phone (camera, maps, email, etc.)

The problem remains that a person who holds a mobile phone up to their face
(potentially recording what's straight ahead) is just called an asshole.

I imagine the majority of people think it is rude to hold up a video camera
all of the time while in public/starbucks/supermarket, even if the camera is
off (Importantly: _It does not matter if the camera is on or cannot possibly
be on._ As if the median person could tell or know). People are uncomfortable
being potentially recorded in their daily interactions. Nobody wants to feel
stared down by a camera or recorded.

So I think "don't be rude" (from Google's list) isn't a very helpful tip.
_Wearing Google Glass in public is rude._

~~~

[1] Gabe from Penny Arcade recounts his experience:

> As I was walking in today I heard the front door open and I quickly slid my
> Glass down off my head and slung it around my neck. A woman passed me by and
> I gave her a polite smile. As I got inside the building I moved the Glass
> back up to my head but I realised the reason I took it off was because I
> didn’t want to be rude.

> I was not embarrassed or worried she would think I was a dork. I AM a dork!
> What I was worried about was being rude. I feel like walking around with a
> camera pointed at people even if it’s not recording is just not polite. It’s
> a very strange feeling that I’m only just now trying to get my head around.
> I think the technology is incredibly cool but I wonder if socially we are
> ready for Glass. I’m starting to think the Google Glass Explorer program
> might be less about testing hardware, and more about testing people.

from: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2013/06/12/google-
glas...](http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2013/06/12/google-glass1)

[2] [https://sites.google.com/site/glasscomms/glass-
explorers](https://sites.google.com/site/glasscomms/glass-explorers)

~~~
lnanek2
I've been wearing Glass inside and outside regularly since April last year.
I've met one single person during that time who asked me to take it off - a
CEO at a startup who said they had sensitive meetings going on in the office
that couldn't be recorded. I've met one single person who acted like Glass was
rude and said not to record him. I've met dozens and dozens of people who were
super interested, wanted to know all about it, and wanted to try it on:
[http://neatocode.tumblr.com/post/50125618850/outside-
glass-o...](http://neatocode.tumblr.com/post/50125618850/outside-glass-one-
thing-about-wearing-google)

Many even asked for pictures of themselves wearing it. This thing where you
think it is rude and the public hates it? It's all in your head. If you have a
friend with one, ask to wear it around a bit. You become a minor celebrity
with people stopping you constantly, happily, wanting to know all about it.

~~~
jacobolus
People aren’t going to ask you to take it off. They’re just going to silently
decide that you’re an asshole.

~~~
raldi
Just like those jerks talking on cellphones in public in the 90s.

------
greenyoda
From Google's list: " _If you’re worried about someone interrupting that
romantic dinner at a nice restaurant with a question about Glass, just take it
off and put it around the back of your neck or in your bag._ "

You should probably be more worried about _you_ interrupting _your own_
dinner. Wearing a display on your face that can distract you at inopportune
moments is probably not something you want to do if you're having a romantic
dinner (just as you wouldn't want to be constantly playing with a phone on the
table). Your dinner partner might find it to be rude or annoying.

~~~
faddotio
Too late, it's already a disaster. People already set their iPhones
conspicuously on the table _between_ themselves and their conversation
partner. And then they check the phone compulsively.

~~~
smacktoward
At least it's a quick way to discover you're having dinner with somebody you
really don't want to be having dinner with. Used to be it took hours of
conversation to suss that out!

~~~
wavefunction
Indeed! I had one lady answer a text between the drinks and appetizers. I paid
the check and left. An expensive snack but a priceless look on her face ;)

~~~
faddotio
Haha, I wish I could've been a fly on the wall for that.

You should've recorded it with your cell phone. ;)

------
lutusp
No one seems to have thought of this, so I'll just put it out there. Someone,
sometime in the near future, is going to design a pair of glasses that have
all the features of Google Glass, but be undetectable, be indistinguishable
from a normal pair of glasses or sunglasses. Call them "Stealth Glasses". Then
dozens of vendors will pick up on the idea.

When that happens, this entire conversation will change. People will begin to
wonder whether anyone they meet wearing glasses is surreptitiously recording
their interaction in HDTV and stereo sound.

At that point, people will long for the good old days when Google Glass was
the only technology in this class, and how simple everything was.

~~~
blueskin_
At some point in the future, someone is going to design a pair of glasses that
detect google glasses etc. and direct a laser into their camera. I'd buy a
pair.

------
threeseed
The problem Google has is that there a significant overlap between those
willing to wear those glasses and those with poor social skills.

For me personally companies like Apple and Pebble are going to be infinitely
more successful with smart watches.

------
UweSchmidt
Politeness does not help much.

Glass and similar gadgets must be set up that by default so that the data is
sent to a private webspace owned or rented by the user so that legally no 3rd
party can run their queries against it. Users can then buy the terminator app
that tells them what shoe and pant size people have - but the actual data must
by default be private, everything else is simply crazy.

However confronting people and asking them to take off their beloved new toy,
maybe one that has prescription glasses built in that they need in this
situation, is incredibly difficult in most social situations.

Glass-wearing Saruman could laugh at your face, and ask "what do we have to
fear?" Only thing Gandalf can do is to throw a blanket over their head and
state that the usage of the data is unaccounted for and we don't know who's
watching. Awkward imo.

~~~
blueskin_
I'm sure they carry a pair of non-spying glasses too. After all, what happens
if someone steals their spy ones off their face one day? They'd need a backup
to be able to see to get home.

------
blueskin_
>How not to be a glasshole

Don't wear google glasses.

Seems simple enough to me.

------
Sanctor
The person in the video is wildly unpresentable. I could not keep watching
past one minute or so.

As for Google Glass, I can't expect people to familiarize themselves with and
accept the behaviour of a camera being pointed at themselves at all times. I
don't think this kind of thing should ever be acceptable. Privacy is
compromised as it is, without people wearing cameras on their faces.

------
billpg
I never saw this sort of reaction against CCTV cameras.

Is a video camera on a wall really so much different than a video camera on a
person's head?

~~~
sentenza
Probably depends on where you are. Here in Germany, there is lots of
resistance against CCTV cameras.

In the UK, on the other hand, I'd be surprised if people cared about Glass in
public spaces, since CCTV is ubiquitous there.

------
ejain
I wonder if Google is regretting making the camera a fixed, non-detachable
part of Google Glass?

------
fvrghl
If the friction point of using a product is polite society, then maybe it's
time to rethink it. If Glass wasn't as visible on the user, would that make it
more ok to use, or less ok?

------
fit2rule
I recently encountered a few Glassholes in my environment, and let me tell you
- the fervor with which these guys defended their right to use their Google
Glass device to intrude upon my life is, frankly, terrifying. This generation
may not think its rude to intrude - but what will the next generation think is
acceptable? When this technology becomes ubiquitous and available to teens, I
fear for the world. Too much lawn-guarding for this old codger? Perhaps .. but
I have to say that the idea of having people doing Google's work for them all
the while having 'convenient' features marketed to them is heinous.

But I realize I'm generalizing without content, so with that off my chest, let
me explain what I think is so wrong about the Google Glass religious
experience: what is the real issue I have with this?

Its simply this: Google Glass gets in the way of two human beings, for the
sake of providing one human being some 'convenience', and a corporation with
Yet More Data To Rule The World with .. As soon as you've got that thing on,
and you're pointing it at someone, you have put a physical barrier between
your eyes, and theirs. Your mind, and theirs, is no longer connected in a
human fashion - the Glassholes' mind is connected to Google, first and
foremost. So whenever I have the misfortune to be dealing with a Glasshole, I
know that I'm not actually talking to the person, themselves, as a unit - but
rather someone who has willingly usurped their own individual free will, and
is renting it out to Google for the price of 'having cool technology'.

In all honesty, todays Google Glass toter is yesterdays' E-meter "free stress-
test" booth dweller. Both classes of individual are proving they'd rather play
with toys than deal with people.

------
PhasmaFelis
Here's a much simpler list:

1) Don't be an asshole.

2) Avoid the kind of assholes who go into paroxysms of judgement over head-
mounted phones.

