<story><title>Google Glass</title><url>http://www.google.com/glass</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>blazingfrog2</author><text>I don&apos;t know you or your background but I&apos;m going to guess you may not be part of that younger generation (late high school, early college years) who was literally born with a computer in their crib and came into their teen years with with a smart phone in their hand.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m often reminded of the divide between them and my generation (born in the mid 70&apos;s) when I visit friends who have children that age, or even in public places where they hang out in groups. I virtually see each of them holding a smart phone, maybe not always using it but definitely at the ready no matter what the circumstances (middle of a conversation with a human being, shopping for clothes, driving, etc...).
Even if they don&apos;t look at it for more a moment as you say, it&apos;s always present and slowly but surely encroaching on real human interactions.&lt;p&gt;That generation will be entering the world of grown-ups very soon and your argument will rapidly be invalidated.</text></item><item><author>mkr-hn</author><text>On the one hand, I completely agree. On the other, we need people like artursapek to make us think about how far we&apos;re willing to go into the digital abyss. And we need people like you to offer the counterarguments to the counterarguments. And maybe people like me to remind everyone that our natural social checks and balances are still working perfectly.&lt;p&gt;For what it&apos;s worth, I never see people with their smartphones out for more than a moment. Maybe it&apos;d be different if I were closer to Athens, Atlanta, or even one of the smaller big cities at the east end of Metro Atlanta.</text></item><item><author>jgroome</author><text>I hear what you&apos;re saying, and I appreciate that you put the time in to write that out, but honestly I&apos;m hearing this kind of argument from so many quarters (&quot;we never look up!&quot; &quot;we all talk, but we never &lt;i&gt;converse&lt;/i&gt;!&quot; etc etc) recently that it&apos;s starting to get obnoxious.&lt;p&gt;Conversation is not dead. People have been moaning about how we&apos;re all becoming socially isolated since the publication of the first novel. The art of socialising has been declared dying ever since the first VHS was available to buy and watch at home.&lt;p&gt;Point is, it&apos;s bullshit. People still hang out (in person, not in &quot;hangouts&quot;). Yeah, people have mobile phones, and sometimes when hanging out as part of a group we check them, but it&apos;s not like it kills all conversation dead. A group of three people all looking at their phones is the exception, not the rule - it&apos;s not like that&apos;s what we plan to do when we arrange to spend time together.&lt;p&gt;As for your lady friend, like you said, that&apos;s her habit to break. But you can&apos;t assume everyone who hasn&apos;t taken a vow not to use a smartphone is the same - I have a smartphone, so do all my friends, and yet we&apos;re all somehow able to communicate to one another in person. When I go out and about in town I don&apos;t see crowds of people standing around looking at their phones. I see groups of people socialising and talking - if someone is by themselves then their phone can provide some distraction/semblance of &quot;company&quot;.&lt;p&gt;There&apos;s also a tendency for us techy types to get caught in our own little bubble - I get my news from HN Reddit and Twitter, so my view on how people use these services is clouded. It&apos;s like when a journalist starts using Twitter and writes about how &quot;everybody is obsessed with tweeting, you can only send short messages, therefore the art of meaningful conversation is dead&quot;. They don&apos;t realise that the &quot;everybody&quot; they&apos;re talking about is only those people in their immediate social circle.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve kind of gone off subject, but my main point is this: Black Mirror isn&apos;t a documentary. It&apos;s so easy to project your own worst nightmares onto new technology. It doesn&apos;t necessarily make them a reality.</text></item><item><author>artursapek</author><text>I am seriously concerned about this.&lt;p&gt;I was in a long-distance relationship this summer. We would take turns visiting each other in our respective cities roughly 5 hours apart. It was a pretty long journey for a weekend - it would sometimes take 10 hours one way since you had to go through New York. Of course, it was worth it.&lt;p&gt;But whenever we would go on a walk, or I&apos;d take her out to dinner, I got as much face time with the back of that fucking iPhone as with her. We&apos;d be strolling down the street during a beautiful summer sunset, and she&apos;d be holding my hand with one of hers, and with the other she&apos;d be scrolling through Instagram. Craning her neck to stare at that stupid dim little screen instead of just looking around at the beautiful neighborhood I lived in. Same thing while I tried talking to her during dinner. She literally preferred it to looking at what was around her.&lt;p&gt;Gawking at fake vintage photos. Or reading her horoscope. Or online shopping. Or whatever.&lt;p&gt;I asked her to stop, I said it was rude. She couldn&apos;t. I started to resent the iPhone, for stealing my limited time with her. I know, I know. It was a flaw in her, and not &lt;i&gt;everybody&lt;/i&gt; does that, right?&lt;p&gt;Certainly not everybody. But I go to coffee shops now, I go to events, and people are just in cell phone huddles. A group of people will go out, and unanimously decide to prick and pinch and swipe their glass worship stones instead of having a fucking conversation or looking around them. This is &lt;i&gt;everywhere&lt;/i&gt;. Every year it&apos;s more of a common sight. It&apos;s actually surprising now to see someone at the local cafe reading a book, or playing chess.&lt;p&gt;I might notice this more than most because I made a life decision to not use a &quot;smart phone&quot; and have kept using the same shitty Blackberry for 6 years now. It can only do calls, texts, and Sudoku. I couldn&apos;t do this kind of thing if I wanted.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m 20 now. I remember junior high, when the best cell phone was a Motorola RAZR. People never did this shit back then, because they couldn&apos;t. People spent time with each other. The cell phones would come out to facilitate people getting together, and then they&apos;d go back in your pocket. That was it. They were actually phones. It was all they could do.&lt;p&gt;Phones today just aren&apos;t phones anymore. I don&apos;t know what to call them. They&apos;re more integrated with our lives. More intrusive. More attractive. They&apos;re addictive.[1] And they&apos;re used mostly for useless things.&lt;p&gt;Well, Google is taking the last remaining effort out of letting technology intervene with your actual life. And they know what to call it. Glass. Now you can &lt;i&gt;wear&lt;/i&gt; it. It&apos;s a default. You don&apos;t have to pull it out. It&apos;s just always there. If this becomes normal, I will probably have to run away to the Third World or something.&lt;p&gt;I am crossing my fingers that we just stop at smart phones, and this never takes off. But I&apos;m scared, because in the back of my head I am pretty certain it will. Eventually there will be no strangers, and there will be no friends. Everyone&apos;s name will be public, and nobody will get to know each other. Despite your dinky little social networks and social apps, you are forgetting what it is to actually know someone.&lt;p&gt;I really hope I don&apos;t ever have to go on a date with some girl who&apos;s getting conversation tips from Google&apos;s magic headgear. Fuck that.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://paulgraham.com/addiction.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://paulgraham.com/addiction.html&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>silverbax88</author><text>As a tech guy in his forties, I find these arguments hilarious - especially when my own generation had the same things said about television (&quot;They won&apos;t know personal contact or relationships!&quot;) , video games...every new thing is the end of  human society as we know it.&lt;p&gt;Until it isn&apos;t.&lt;p&gt;I mean, honestly, stop being so myopic. There were people who decried the STEAM ENGINE. There were people - sometimes, legitimate journalists and &quot;thought leaders&quot; who would write articles and essays about ELECTRICITY. And RADIO. And the PHONE. And the TELEGRAPH.&lt;p&gt;And when the telegraph began to become obsolete, there was wailing and and gnashing of teeth. When the &apos;horseless carraige&apos; was introduced, there were op-ed pieces written stating it was a sad state that America might not use horsepower in the future.&lt;p&gt;Yeah, society is going to change. It&apos;s always changing. People adapt. Some things we lose, some things we gain. It&apos;s only &quot;the way it should be&quot; to you because it&apos;s the world you know.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Glass</title><url>http://www.google.com/glass</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>blazingfrog2</author><text>I don&apos;t know you or your background but I&apos;m going to guess you may not be part of that younger generation (late high school, early college years) who was literally born with a computer in their crib and came into their teen years with with a smart phone in their hand.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m often reminded of the divide between them and my generation (born in the mid 70&apos;s) when I visit friends who have children that age, or even in public places where they hang out in groups. I virtually see each of them holding a smart phone, maybe not always using it but definitely at the ready no matter what the circumstances (middle of a conversation with a human being, shopping for clothes, driving, etc...).
Even if they don&apos;t look at it for more a moment as you say, it&apos;s always present and slowly but surely encroaching on real human interactions.&lt;p&gt;That generation will be entering the world of grown-ups very soon and your argument will rapidly be invalidated.</text></item><item><author>mkr-hn</author><text>On the one hand, I completely agree. On the other, we need people like artursapek to make us think about how far we&apos;re willing to go into the digital abyss. And we need people like you to offer the counterarguments to the counterarguments. And maybe people like me to remind everyone that our natural social checks and balances are still working perfectly.&lt;p&gt;For what it&apos;s worth, I never see people with their smartphones out for more than a moment. Maybe it&apos;d be different if I were closer to Athens, Atlanta, or even one of the smaller big cities at the east end of Metro Atlanta.</text></item><item><author>jgroome</author><text>I hear what you&apos;re saying, and I appreciate that you put the time in to write that out, but honestly I&apos;m hearing this kind of argument from so many quarters (&quot;we never look up!&quot; &quot;we all talk, but we never &lt;i&gt;converse&lt;/i&gt;!&quot; etc etc) recently that it&apos;s starting to get obnoxious.&lt;p&gt;Conversation is not dead. People have been moaning about how we&apos;re all becoming socially isolated since the publication of the first novel. The art of socialising has been declared dying ever since the first VHS was available to buy and watch at home.&lt;p&gt;Point is, it&apos;s bullshit. People still hang out (in person, not in &quot;hangouts&quot;). Yeah, people have mobile phones, and sometimes when hanging out as part of a group we check them, but it&apos;s not like it kills all conversation dead. A group of three people all looking at their phones is the exception, not the rule - it&apos;s not like that&apos;s what we plan to do when we arrange to spend time together.&lt;p&gt;As for your lady friend, like you said, that&apos;s her habit to break. But you can&apos;t assume everyone who hasn&apos;t taken a vow not to use a smartphone is the same - I have a smartphone, so do all my friends, and yet we&apos;re all somehow able to communicate to one another in person. When I go out and about in town I don&apos;t see crowds of people standing around looking at their phones. I see groups of people socialising and talking - if someone is by themselves then their phone can provide some distraction/semblance of &quot;company&quot;.&lt;p&gt;There&apos;s also a tendency for us techy types to get caught in our own little bubble - I get my news from HN Reddit and Twitter, so my view on how people use these services is clouded. It&apos;s like when a journalist starts using Twitter and writes about how &quot;everybody is obsessed with tweeting, you can only send short messages, therefore the art of meaningful conversation is dead&quot;. They don&apos;t realise that the &quot;everybody&quot; they&apos;re talking about is only those people in their immediate social circle.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve kind of gone off subject, but my main point is this: Black Mirror isn&apos;t a documentary. It&apos;s so easy to project your own worst nightmares onto new technology. It doesn&apos;t necessarily make them a reality.</text></item><item><author>artursapek</author><text>I am seriously concerned about this.&lt;p&gt;I was in a long-distance relationship this summer. We would take turns visiting each other in our respective cities roughly 5 hours apart. It was a pretty long journey for a weekend - it would sometimes take 10 hours one way since you had to go through New York. Of course, it was worth it.&lt;p&gt;But whenever we would go on a walk, or I&apos;d take her out to dinner, I got as much face time with the back of that fucking iPhone as with her. We&apos;d be strolling down the street during a beautiful summer sunset, and she&apos;d be holding my hand with one of hers, and with the other she&apos;d be scrolling through Instagram. Craning her neck to stare at that stupid dim little screen instead of just looking around at the beautiful neighborhood I lived in. Same thing while I tried talking to her during dinner. She literally preferred it to looking at what was around her.&lt;p&gt;Gawking at fake vintage photos. Or reading her horoscope. Or online shopping. Or whatever.&lt;p&gt;I asked her to stop, I said it was rude. She couldn&apos;t. I started to resent the iPhone, for stealing my limited time with her. I know, I know. It was a flaw in her, and not &lt;i&gt;everybody&lt;/i&gt; does that, right?&lt;p&gt;Certainly not everybody. But I go to coffee shops now, I go to events, and people are just in cell phone huddles. A group of people will go out, and unanimously decide to prick and pinch and swipe their glass worship stones instead of having a fucking conversation or looking around them. This is &lt;i&gt;everywhere&lt;/i&gt;. Every year it&apos;s more of a common sight. It&apos;s actually surprising now to see someone at the local cafe reading a book, or playing chess.&lt;p&gt;I might notice this more than most because I made a life decision to not use a &quot;smart phone&quot; and have kept using the same shitty Blackberry for 6 years now. It can only do calls, texts, and Sudoku. I couldn&apos;t do this kind of thing if I wanted.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m 20 now. I remember junior high, when the best cell phone was a Motorola RAZR. People never did this shit back then, because they couldn&apos;t. People spent time with each other. The cell phones would come out to facilitate people getting together, and then they&apos;d go back in your pocket. That was it. They were actually phones. It was all they could do.&lt;p&gt;Phones today just aren&apos;t phones anymore. I don&apos;t know what to call them. They&apos;re more integrated with our lives. More intrusive. More attractive. They&apos;re addictive.[1] And they&apos;re used mostly for useless things.&lt;p&gt;Well, Google is taking the last remaining effort out of letting technology intervene with your actual life. And they know what to call it. Glass. Now you can &lt;i&gt;wear&lt;/i&gt; it. It&apos;s a default. You don&apos;t have to pull it out. It&apos;s just always there. If this becomes normal, I will probably have to run away to the Third World or something.&lt;p&gt;I am crossing my fingers that we just stop at smart phones, and this never takes off. But I&apos;m scared, because in the back of my head I am pretty certain it will. Eventually there will be no strangers, and there will be no friends. Everyone&apos;s name will be public, and nobody will get to know each other. Despite your dinky little social networks and social apps, you are forgetting what it is to actually know someone.&lt;p&gt;I really hope I don&apos;t ever have to go on a date with some girl who&apos;s getting conversation tips from Google&apos;s magic headgear. Fuck that.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://paulgraham.com/addiction.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://paulgraham.com/addiction.html&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sliverstorm</author><text>I am hovering between the generations in this regard, and I definitely see (or think I see) a strong gradient. I know vanishingly few adults over thirty who spend life buried in tech- even the tech-savvy ones. Then as you work backwards in age down to high school, you see progressively more and more absorption into technology.&lt;p&gt;Most everyone I know along the &quot;scale&quot; is sharp enough to use whatever the latest tech is. The different is not savvy, it is usage patterns.&lt;p&gt;/anecdote</text></comment>