( CNN ) -- The Segway . The Bluetooth headset . The pocket protector . What do these three technologies have in common ? They all pretty much work as promised . They all seem like good ideas on paper . And they 're all too dorky to live . Now , far be it from me to claim that nerdiness equals lack of popularity potential . But I contend that dorkiness and nerdiness are two different qualities . While nerdiness implies a certain social awkwardness that 's ultimately endearing , dorkiness connotes social obliviousness that opens you to deserved ridicule . Guess which category Google Glass will fall under when it goes `` mainstream ? '' Forget about the privacy concerns for a second . I do n't think you have to get that serious to recognize the inherent antisocialness of Google Glass . All you have to do is look at the guy in the picture at the top of this post . Or any of the rest of the guys on White Men Wearing Google Glass , a new Tumblr that serves up the data needed to transform the hypothesis `` Google Glass is too dorky to succeed '' into a proven scientific theory . Disagree ? The floor is open for falsification . Start your own Tumblr : People Who Look Cool While Wearing Google Glass . Before its release , some of the smartest people in tech predicted that the Segway would change the world . And even when the world joined in a collective `` Huh ? '' when the much-hyped secret Ginger project was revealed to be a gyro-balanced scooter , the idea still kind of made sense . If we were all riding around on Segways now , cities would probably be better places to live compared to the car-infested streets we still endure . But that transformation has n't happened . And it wo n't . Why ? Because Segways are lame . They 're too rational . They fail to acknowledge all the irrational reasons people love their cars . Similarly , Google Glass fails to acknowledge that walking around with a camera mounted on the side of your face at all times makes you look dorky . Think of the Bluetooth headset : it 's a really sensible way to use your phone without having to take it out of your pocketâ€ ” so sensible that there 's really no reason not to keep that headset in your ear most of the time . But you do n't , do you ? There 's a reason that Saturday Night Live put a Bluetooth headset on Jason Sudeikis in its recurring `` Two A-Holes '' sketches . Google Glass , like the Segway , is what happens when Silicon Valley spends too much time talking to itself . Maybe that 's even overstating the case : The rhetoric around Google Glass is what happens when important tech people spend a little too much time congratulating each other . There 's really nothing wrong with Google Glass as a technological experiment . The future will include some kind of wearable smart technology , and it 's important for Google to be experimenting in that direction . But Google co-founder Sergey Brin 's presentation at TED , in which he characterized wearing Google Glass as somehow more macho than pulling your smartphone out of your pocket , underscores the tone-deafness that can envelop Silicon Valley when VIPs get a little too excited about the Next Big Thing . Brin , after all , is a guy who thinks nothing of engaging in spontaneous yoga in the middle of a crowded tech conference . This is n't a bad thingâ€ ” on the nerd to dork scale , it definitely tilts toward `` nerd . '' But if you 're one of the shareholders helping to keep Google 's shares trading above $ 800 , the dork factor of Google Glass should give you pause . Google is still trying to crack the secret of monetizing mobile technology , which so far has n't proven as lucrative as its desktop search business . Google Glass may be a fun experiment in building another mobile platform to attract as-yet-unimagined revenue streams . But making money on consumer technology requires that consumers embrace that technology . If Google Glass makes you look as cool as the guys in that Tumblr , that embrace is about as likely to happen as you hugging a Segway . Or Robert Scoble in the shower . Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $ 1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT ! Click here ! Copyright 2011 Wired.com .
Early adopters might make Glass seem dorky . Like Bluetooth headsets , Glass is lopsided , with a camera on Two lens . Glass says Google Glass is what happens when Silicon Valley does n't get the real world .