Eleven days ago I was a regular person: people didn’t look at me oddly on the street, strangers didn’t freely come up and ask me questions, I didn’t walk into things or suddenly have photos of the inside of bags and myself from odd angles.
Then I started wearing Google Glass.
For those not in the know, Google Glass is a headset-like device that syncs with Google, takes pictures and video, searches the Internet and much more. With the sunglass lenses in, it looks like a high-tech version, as I was told yesterday, of Ray-Bans. Without the dark lenses, though, at my best I like to think I’m on my way to looking like Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation; at my worst, I think I probably look like I have on a new kind of corrective eye ware. (Actually, a nice woman told me that. When she heard they were Glass she said, “Oh good! I thought something had happened to you!”)
I entered Google’s “If I had Glass …” contest and was chosen as one of more than 8,000 Explorers who would be able to purchase Glass before it was available on the open market. For this opportunity, I flew to New York City two weekends ago, visited the Glass office in Chelsea Market and was taught the basics of how to use them. I am also able to login to an Explorers community through Google+, where the rest of the group, along with members of Glass support, troubleshoot and share stories, video, photos and more.
Wearing Glass is definitely a conversation starter. Everyone wants to know what makes them different than using a Smartphone; what makes them useful; are they comfortable; how expensive are they; when can someone get one; what do they do exactly… And no one seems shy about asking, though most people do say, “Excuse me, but …” before they start.
The one thing that everyone wants to know, however, is: Has this new technology changed your life in any way?
And the answer is: Not yet, but it might.
In my opinion, the greatest feature of Glass is the ability to shoot photos and take video of exactly what you’re seeing.
Yes, directions, Google searches, tweets and more appearing in front of my eyes is amazing. But I’ve gotten to take snippets of some amazing experiences already: an Australian gentleman talking to my husband at WD~50 in NYC about wearing a bowtie in the Australian Army;
a bit of Belle and Sebastian performing “I’m a Cuckoo” at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago;
and a moment of catching brunch with two of my sorority sisters and one of their husbands (Hi, Katherine, Josh and Whitney) also while in Chicago.
Even with all the attention, which is so far my least favorite aspect of all this, every day I’m learning more about Glass, how to use them and what amenities they can offer. I know that some day I’m going to enjoy looking back through all of these snippets of my life and the experiences I’m lucky enough to have, and that might change my life forever.
