Ever since we watched the videos in class about the “Google glass”, I became fascinated with the idea but even more obsessed with the parodies. Who would have honestly thought that technology would evolve the way it did over the past decade. I have a little niece, who is almost 3 years old, she already knows how to use a cellphone, iPad, you name it. Adolescents now know how to use these items better than most adults do. It frightens me to contemplate of what our future generation is being raised upon… technology wise. The “Google glass” may even be one of the utmost technologies created so far, but right now I am not adjusting to the idea. I stumbled upon this article http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/code-in-google-glass-features/ which is summarizing some of the things Google is trying to accomplish. “Google is working on a handful of cool new features for its smart frames, including two-finger touch-to-zoom and winking to take a photo.” Really? I don’t know if I am being skeptical or what the youngsters these day would refer to as “old school”, but I just can not wrap my mind over how lazy we as people may possibly convert into when even the simplest things like taking pictures with our hands may be taken away from our society.
This reminds of the way that humans are portrayed in Wall-E as lazy slobs glued to their chairs watching a video screen that responds to all their needs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9s7afoYI-M
I agree with you 100% that technology like this can lead to us all becoming the characters from Wall-E. However, this article answers some of my biggest criticisms of the Google Glass. When we were studying them in class, one of the biggest problems I found with them is that in order to engage certain functions, you literally have to talk to your glasses. Could you imagine an entire train or sports stadium with everyone screaming “Ok, Glass! Take a picture!” At least adding the wink-to-click photo feature allows them to be used in a more subtle manner. That being said, I’ll take my regular camera any day.
We may find it unusual and unsettling that technology is so essential to the new generations. When new products like Google Glass come out, our first reaction is to reject and criticize them; however it is human nature to follow trends that are pushed onto our society. Let’s say, The Devil Wears Prada sequel gets released where the main character is wearing this ridiculous headpiece with winking picture-taking features. The next day, all fashion girls who rejected the idea before are going to be caught wearing it. This article scares me a little bit because we are all already so addicted to our phones and iPads, just thinking about taking photos with quite literally “a blink of an eye” sounds completely over the top. But to be completely realistic, it is probably going to become a part of our normal everyday lives at some point in the near future.
Addition to Google glass, getting information is a lot easier and faster, thanks to internet. But I think we become less knowledgeable compared to past. Internet users seem like experts for looking for instant information and they tend to forget about it in a while. Now we have more chances to interact with more and newer information faster and easier but we are lacking abilities of turning information into complete knowledge. I think Google glass will make us even dumber.