Worst People – Obsession – Smart Glasses
There’s something about smart glasses that brings out the worst in people. But it’s no wonder. These are powerful little surveillance devices that allow their wearers to secretly record who they’re looking at, uniting tech bros and wayward influencers under the same unpleasant umbrella.
The popularity of wearables like the Meta Ray-Ban is an instant reminder of why the slang term “glass hole” already existed over a decade ago, but now it’s becoming more relevant than ever. A book that summarizes the behavior of modern glass holes that are convenient but raise blood pressure. mashable, jIdiots who use always-on devices are using them to film themselves doing stupid “pranks” to get views. Much of it centers around harassment of women, service workers, and the homeless.
Unfortunately, one type of unsavory thug who has discovered the usefulness of this technique is the “pickup artist.” They now have the ability to discreetly record the women they are “seducing”, or harassing, in a clear violation of their privacy.
Of course, you can’t blame smart glasses alone. It’s social media, it’s the attention economy, it’s the smartphones we all use to participate in all of the above. But there’s no denying that smart glasses can record anyone and anything much more stealthily than shoving a cell phone in someone’s face, making them a godsend for kooks and losers seeking internet fame, from Instagram accounts that filmed women’s butts without their consent to those who visited massage parlors to get the attention of their masseuses. Others confidently film themselves continuing to move the camera despite bothering the service personnel and the subject asking them not to record. And one particularly bizarre channel involves a man pretending to be mentally disabled to converse with unsuspecting firefighters.
Unfortunately, these recordings are usually legal if they are made in a public place, even in states with two-party consent laws. But debating its legality is beside the point, argues content creator Brad Podley, formerly known as Scumbag Dad.
“I know it’s legal. I don’t care,” Podley said. mashable. “That’s not an argument. I think it’s weird and creepy and shows a very predatory mindset.”
The appeal of smart glasses, he said, is that they’re fairly inexpensive and allow creators to capture the honest reactions of their harassers, making their content feel more authentic. This has given impetus to the quirky prank video genre, which has lost its appeal due to many channels exploiting it.
“They want people who are good on camera, so they’re going to attack fast food workers, they’re going to attack pretty girls,” Podley said. “A lot of random women walking around wouldn’t want to participate in a skit even if they were asked to do it. So they just put on some glasses and eliminate the agency completely.”
Unlike when Google first tried smart glasses in 2014, this time the technology seems to be here to stay. The popularity of products like the Meta Ray-Ban has opened up a new market of imitators who are in an arms race to make smart glasses as ethically dubious as possible, perhaps with the help of AI and facial recognition software. But ordinary people have had enough. A woman was widely hailed as a hero after she allegedly broke a man’s smart glasses on the subway. May smart glasses become heroes for us all.
Learn more wearable: A man who bought Meta’s AI glasses ended up wandering the desert looking for an alien to kidnap him.
