Google Glass Etiquette

November 27, 2013 1:38 PM

Given that many people are divided about Google Glass, with some people especially resistant to even the idea of someone wearing them, how, when and what would be appropriate for someone wearing them? I'd especially like to hear feedback from people who are averse to the concept.

I've been interested in wearable computing and would like to try Google Glass out in order to get a better sense of how they can be useful. At the same time, I'm hesitant to be "that guy" who is immediately branded the equivalent of a jerk talking on his bluetooth headset in public. What should I avoid doing. How can I wear them without making too many people uncomfortable?

posted by mulligan to Human Relations (42 answers total)

I think they can be worn anytime, so long as they haven't been modified to eliminate the built-in indicators that they are recording.

I'd much rather see someone's Glass, than assume that they don't have a hidden camera somewhere.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:43 PM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

Not everyone is comfortable being photographed, with having their image placed online outside of their control or being monitored while in public (regardless of whether or not an "expectation of privacy" is in effect) without having agreed to it beforehand. The more public the interaction, the more likely you're going to run into this.
posted by tommasz at 1:43 PM on November 27, 2013 [3 favorites]

Go to the most upscale shopping mall near you and wear them there. People may assume you've been hired to wear them around to create product awareness and may be less inclined to think of you as "that guy."
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:48 PM on November 27, 2013

Don't rule out violence.
posted by scruss at 1:51 PM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'd much rather see someone's Glass, than assume that they don't have a hidden camera somewhere.

I was writing something, but this illustrates my point better than what I was writing.

Until Google Glass becomes ubiquitous, most people are going to think "I'm being recorded" well ahead of "the glasses probably warn me if I'm being recorded." As far as anyone who hasn't looked into the technology past the 10 O'Clock News is concerned, you'll be doing the equivalent of waving a camera around pointed at whatever you're looking at, at all times. Assume that if you will make eye contact with someone, and they will assume you are taking photos of them.
posted by griphus at 1:53 PM on November 27, 2013 [4 favorites]

I would have left it at "they should never be worn when interacting." Same etiquette for holding up a cell phone and looking at it while "interacting" with someone.
posted by rr at 1:57 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think perceptions will change if/when people understand the device better. People are worried about the camera, despite the fact that 99.9% of the time its not taking pictures or recording anything. Some people seem to think its one of those lifeblogging 24/7 camera things, or at least they give that impression.

Same with wearing it while interacting, most of the time its off and out of your vision to the extent it does not distract/interfere at all from the wearers perspective, so its all about whether the other person is bothered by the idea of it than any actual distraction issue.

If you look at the G+ community for Glass explorers, you'll see plenty of discussion on the reactions people get.
posted by wildcrdj at 2:03 PM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

I live in a major US city that I feel is reasonably tech-savvy, and I have yet to see anyone using Google Glass. I worked for a while for a tech correspondent, and I just recently saw her modeling them on instagram in an excited "oooo lookit" kind of way.

I think it's waaaaaaay early to be having any kind of conversation about proper Google Glass etiquette, just because the technology hasn't in any way penetrated the popular consciousness.

But the obvious stuff:

- not when interacting with actual humans.

- if there is a noisemaking or flashy stroby light aspect, I'm thinking please not on public transit or in other crowded places.

- please don't be using it to look up my skirt. Creepers are creepers, but if you're wearing google glass AND being a creeper, violence is likely.

I'd also probably be concerned about muggings if you flash it around in certain settings.
posted by Sara C. at 2:06 PM on November 27, 2013

I'd refuse to talk to anyone wearing them whether they were a family member or a total stranger. If someone was wearing them on the street I'd ignore it unless they seemed to be staring at me specifically in which case I'd move away from them.

I am not paranoid about being on camera but I don't like being recorded casually like that. At all. And I wouldn't trust that the camera was off since I'm not familiar with the device and also people lie about shit like that all the time.
posted by fshgrl at 2:08 PM on November 27, 2013 [7 favorites]

I don't want to interact with anyone wearing them, personally. If I know you, I'd ask you to take them off. If I don't know you, I'd just take steps not to deal with you in person again. So, leave you off the meeting request or the after work drinks email or whatever. I don't think I'm the only one who would feel this way.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 2:08 PM on November 27, 2013 [15 favorites]

Also, the camera-indicator will be trustworthy right up until someone roots the OS or replaces it with their own. Which if it hasn't happened yet, is almost inevitable after launch.
posted by griphus at 2:12 PM on November 27, 2013 [3 favorites]

I won't allow them in my home. I would tell a guest to leave them in their car. If you want to violate my privacy, steal my passwords. Don't record me.
posted by oceanjesse at 2:15 PM on November 27, 2013 [4 favorites]

Right now it seems like the guy with blue-tooth earpod--rude. To me, it's worse than the earplugs for music--those signal a desire for privacy, the glasses don't send that signal.

Anyhow, don't do it in the street where it'll scare the horses.

But that's just me. I'm pretty sure times will evolve, and soon enough we oldfarts (who remain unplugged) will be curiosities for you whippersnappers to lol at.
posted by mule98J at 2:20 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

A guy was wearing his Google Glass while walking around the locker room at the gym earlier this week. I feel like that's bad form.
posted by the jam at 2:36 PM on November 27, 2013 [10 favorites]

At the same time, I'm hesitant to be "that guy" who is immediately branded the equivalent of a jerk talking on his bluetooth headset in public.

I couldn't care less if I'm recorded or not, but if I met anyone wearing these things I would definitely think I was in the presence of "that guy". Anyone I know wearing these would get mocked behind their back. Whether you care about what I or anyone else thinks is a different matter, and you should probably do whatever you feel inclined to do. If you are tempted to put these things on, then you probably already do a zillion other things that would signal to me that we are not like-minded - as I likewise signal to you.
posted by cincinnatus c at 2:38 PM on November 27, 2013 [3 favorites]

I recently saw someone wearing them in the grocery store. I was honestly flooded with a feeling of righteous (justified or not) outage. The combination of ostentatious display of wealth and conspicuous consumption with the implied invasion of my privacy filled me with visceral, if questionably rational rage.
posted by latkes at 2:52 PM on November 27, 2013 [16 favorites]

General consensus in San Francisco seems to be that if you're wearing google glass someone will want to punch you in the face.
posted by foodgeek at 2:53 PM on November 27, 2013

Why do you need to record me? If you don't, then you don't need them on.

By all means, wear them. But I'm going to get the hell away from someone who thinks that it's OK to upload my private conversations to a service that has a history of being incredibly creepy and invasive.

I respect your right to wear whatever you want to on your face. But I also have the right to not engage with someone. It makes no difference to me if you're a complete stranger or my lover. That lever of invasion signals that you don't respect my boundaries at all, and I will have nothing further to do with you at that point.
posted by Solomon at 3:20 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm in the Glass Explorers program. I've had mine since this summer. The general etiquette for these kinds of devices is pretty much the same as for phones with cameras.

1.) Not in public restrooms.

2.) Not in locker-rooms.

3.) Not in any place where I have been specifically asked not to wear them.

4.) Your own discretion will be required to answer this and any subsequent items...

I live in Austin, and I have worn them on the bus to and from work for months, as well as walking around in town. I have yet to have anyone say anything negative, let alone threaten/assault me over them. If anything, people are curious and want to know about them.
posted by The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas at 3:21 PM on November 27, 2013 [8 favorites]

Most people you encounter will not be nearly as leery of the glass's recording features as this specific survey sample you have chosen - not saying that the concerns aren't valid, just that mefites will have much stronger opinions and be more informed on the topic than your average encounter on the street, most of whom will probably not even know what the glass is.

Vice Admiral's rules seem pretty logical, to me.
posted by Think_Long at 3:25 PM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

Seems pretty simple considering what they're a combination of. Don't wear them anywhere you wouldn't wear a bluetooth headset or be talking on a cell phone (any direct interaction with another person), and don't wear them anywhere you wouldn't hold up a camera as if you were about to take a photo or video.
posted by supercres at 3:32 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

mefites will have much stronger opinions and be more informed on the topic than your average encounter on the street, most of whom will probably not even know what the glass is

This.

Also, Google Glass is a new technology that is being developed and tested as we speak. Features can and will be added or removed continuously as the beta testing goes on. My issues with the device, as of this moment, is that I don't know when/if I'm being recorded or what Google is doing with that data. My understanding is that 99% of the time it isn't recording anything, however, says who exactly? How do I, as a pedestrian, know when the 1% of the time that the device starts recording actually occurs? A little light that I don't really trust? How else?

I would have an answer for this question prepared before you start using this device publicly. I do think that eventually even The Olds will become accustom to the presence of Google Glass, if they do indeed become popular, however, that will also presumably be at a point when the functions of the glass are well known and mainstream.
posted by Shouraku at 4:00 PM on November 27, 2013

Google Glass infuriates me in a way that I admit is totally unreasonable. But I also think the technology is really cool; I just wish it was sold as "wearable computing" as opposed to "ubiquitous wearable computing". Trying to fill the niche of a tablet rather than a smart phone, in a way.

If you made eye contact with me, I would assume you were taking photos. I know they're supposed to light up, but it won't be long before there are custom firmwares that don't. I'd be okay with someone moving through my space wearing them (e.g. I think one of the apps they promote is for cycling) but probably be a little weirded out by having them linger in the same space as me (like on a subway). If they seemed to be looking at me a suspicious amount I would be uncomfortable and might be willing to start the polite kind of confrontation.

I would be a lot more comfortable around someone wearing them if it seemed like they were being used for something, whether work, navigating, or just keeping important information in front of them. I guess that goes back to the tablet/smartphone thing; I'd say don't wear these where it would be rude or strange to pull out a laptop, with a few exceptions for things like navigation and exercise.

If one of my friends wore them out to a social event I would mock them and try to find ways to screw with the voice controls. Just chilling in someone's house or working, I would mind less.
posted by vogon_poet at 4:00 PM on November 27, 2013

If I was on a bus and I knew you were wearing them I would be upset and move away. But I think most people wouldn't recognize what they were. That makes it even more troublesome to me.
posted by SyraCarol at 4:04 PM on November 27, 2013 [5 favorites]

Being in the presence of that device would make me cringe with discomfort. It would feel invasive to a degree way beyond someone wearing, or talking on, a bluetooth. The bluetooth might make me feel annoyed, but the Google Glass would make me feel invaded, targeted, threatened, and very anxious. I would immediately take measures to remove myself from the situation, and I would be angry about it.

I think the reason that the Vice Admiral hasn't had anyone make a negative comment about them is that the people who have strong negative reactions aren't hanging around long enough to comment -- they're quickly finding a way to be someplace else, or doing their best to seem invisible and uninteresting. If you really want to have that effect on people, it would be a lot cheaper to just stop using deodorant.
posted by Corvid at 4:30 PM on November 27, 2013 [12 favorites]

I have interacted several times with different people wearing Google Glass in social situations (I've never worn it myself). The issue of photographing/recording has been pretty well covered so far, so I'd like to add something different. People using Glass have what seems to be an unintentional and very off-putting tic, which is that while you're talking with them their eyeline will start to shift or change focus. I presume this is because of something happening on their Glass, but the effect is that you can't tell if they're still listening, if you're boring them, or if they're preoccupied because something more pertinent than the two of you interacting is happening (even weirder is when it happens while they're talking and things sort of trail off, as though they'd just been overwhelmed by a sad memory or something). It's a very strange experience -- the closest I've ever felt in person to one of those Skype calls where you can't tell if the call has been dropped, or the other person is checking Twitter, or if they're completely checked out or fuming. I'd bet that a kind of social etiquette will evolve, similar to muting a phone and putting it in the bag as you sit down, that when you're engaged one on one with someone you prop the Glass up on your forehead or otherwise get the screen out of your eyeline.
posted by the brave tetra-pak at 4:33 PM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yer, if I saw you wearing them I would think you were a) a wanker and b) please to not be filming me now, thanks. I think wearing them if they look like sunglasses is fine, but otherwise where you are anonymous and don't care what people think, or in large crowds where noone is looking at you anyway, or in places where you've explicitly told everyone present what you are doing like someone's living room or something, you're golden; but otherwise you're the wanker in new tech who is filming people without their knowledge.
posted by goo at 4:34 PM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

I live in Seattle and have see them around a few times. The first time I saw someone wearing it was in a gay club during Pride. I thought that was incredibly uncool of him, like he was in a small way making a safe-ish space slightly less safe. It absolutely made me cringe. He seemed to be having a good time though.

I'm trying to think of a context in which seeing someone wearing Google Glass wouldn't be entirely off-putting for me. Maybe a sporting event, if your gaze were directed at the field.
posted by palegirl at 4:40 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

In general, only wear them in a situation where it would be okay to be talking on your cell phone and okay to be taking pictures.

Standing in a check-out line? Okay.
Interacting with the check-out clerk? Not okay.

While eating a meal alone? Okay.
While eating a meal with another person? Not okay.

Walking through an airport? Okay.
Going through airport security? Not okay.

In a locker room? Not okay.
While making love? Not okay.
posted by alms at 4:43 PM on November 27, 2013

Google Glass infuriates me in a way that I admit is totally unreasonable.

Pretty much. Although if some commuter on the bus or train is wearing them, that instance is kind of ok - they're probably reading or watching something. (Although if I were a pretty girl who gets ogled a lot, I'd wonder if you were taking my photo for reasons of your own.)

But for other social interactions, it's a bit like having someone sitting down in front of you, explicitly taking out a video camera, and turning it on. Or being surreptitiously recorded or photographed from the table next to you. And I'm not, say, an elementary school teacher letting my hair down and having a drink at a Halloween party while dressed up as a sexy nurse, or a semi-closeted gay teen out with a new boyfriend, or so on. And I'm not a political refugee.

Whether or not it is going to be invasive or distancing is highly situational.

I think many of the first adopters don't feel hugely self-conscious in their own skins and are really comfortable with putting themselves on display. And they're also really comfortable with putting other people on display.
posted by sebastienbailard at 4:58 PM on November 27, 2013

My response would be that you now make me uncomfortable. I would try to interact with you much less. Maybe in the future I'll feel differently, but right this second I'd find it infinitely more invasive than someone on bluetooth.

If you're okay with that response from people then go for it.
posted by 26.2 at 5:27 PM on November 27, 2013

Someone wearing these while interacting with me wouldn't bother me in the least unless I was in one of the verboten places The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas outlined. Basically anywhere that photography in general would be banned. So no use in locker rooms or private spaces if asked not to but otherwise go nuts.

Though I admit I'm a little surprised people are so vehemently opposed to their use without express permission. With the proliferation of security cameras that are in practically every convenience store, gas station, college campus, bank, etc era ad nauseum we're already being record during our interactions everywhere.

Shouraku: " I do think that eventually even The Olds will become accustom to the presence of Google Glass"

Hard to say but in the 25 years I've been carrying a camera everywhere I go I've seen that transmogrify from something bizarre and eccentric (and creepy to some) to something that practically everyone is carrying and using. It's basically expected now that someone/everyone around you will have a camera.

But more importantly all the pieces are currently in existence to make the recording features of Google Glass completely stealth. And it is only going to get easier going forward. People will accept it because they'll have no choice.
posted by Mitheral at 7:55 PM on November 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

The analogies to mobile phones are apt. In some social circles smart phones are rude. In MY social circle smart phones are ubiquitous and part of our socializing. Txts are sent, screens are shared, conversation flows around and through the use of the technology. I assume it will be the same for glass.
posted by saucysault at 8:39 PM on November 27, 2013

i am not crazy about the device being attached to a person's face. that creates a barrier in face-to-face interaction. ironically, it is distancing and invasive at the same time. i want to talk to a person, not their computer, when in person. i think if it were something more along the lines of a watch phone it would be be a lot more palatable because it isn't where people communicate eye-to-eye & face-to-face. personally, i would think if someone wore the google glass they probably are not very socially adept. that may be unfair but it's how i currently feel. it smacks of poor relational skills to me and not valuing human interaction. the purpose of technology is to enhance our lives not enslave them.
posted by wildflower at 8:59 PM on November 27, 2013 [3 favorites]

This past weekend I was staffing a crafts-making station at a holiday craft market in San Francisco when an older gentleman came up to the table wearing Google Glass. He said he was an Explorer and asked to take a photo of my colleague and me with our table setup, and showed us the resulting photo on his Nexus phone. He then spent the next quarter hour extolling the virtues of Glass to my colleague (including how his 80-year-old mother teaches his daughter to make tamales by both wearing Glass at the stove in different houses), but after the first few minutes I couldn't stand his visual tic as mentioned above by the brave tetra-pak - it just looked as if he was always being distracted by something else that only he could see that was more important than the people he was talking to, and not about the work we were doing either. And he was taking up table space and my colleague's attention while I needed every bit of help to manage the crowds of people who showed up wanting to actually make crafts. He left without ever physically interacting with any of our materials, or hearing my spiel about why we were there, or so much as picking up a brochure.

I'd have felt much more kindly about the whole situation if he had actually sat down, made something, recorded his experience, and shared the video with us and the rest of the internet. It would have been great for my arts nonprofit to have the exposure and a much better immediate demonstration of the positive public uses for Glass than some anecdote about his family all using Glass together.
posted by casarkos at 9:05 PM on November 27, 2013 [3 favorites]

Wanker gear. In my drinking days there's a chance I'd have started a fight with you; these days I'm more likely to avoid you, tell all my mates about the dork I saw wearing Google Glass, and assume you have a hat collection.
posted by Ted Maul at 3:34 AM on November 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh, and odds are I'd start conspicuously taking photos of you with my smartphone until you went away.
posted by Ted Maul at 3:36 AM on November 28, 2013

Chalk me up as another person who would react *extremely* poorly to being confronted with someone wearing one of these, in pretty much any context. Rational, irrational, I don't care: get that shit out of my fucking face.
posted by Drexen at 9:07 AM on November 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

It would be as if someone was holding a camcorder up to their eye, and then pretending like it wasn't there. Or perhaps as if you were staring at your phone and trying to talk to me at the same time. I'm not sure I would be offended or upset, but it would be the only thing I would want to talk about, or be able to focus on. It would be extremely distracting, and I would assume you were very self-centered or just not interested in anyone else around you.
posted by blahtsk at 9:53 AM on November 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

Expect ill will and shade. I work as a barista. The other day when someone wearing Google Glass came to be rung up, my mood instantly shifted to unease and irritation with a vague undertone of anger. I am usually very friendly and effusive with customers, but the instant I saw the Google Glass (which I had witnessed before in the wild), I went stoneface and tried to get through the transaction as quickly and coldly as possible. This was my automatic reaction, not some sort of planned protest. Don't come to my place of work and hold a camcorder up to your face when I'm a captive audience being paid to deal with you.
posted by threeants at 6:22 PM on November 28, 2013 [9 favorites]

The proper etiquette is to not use them.

Unless you're acquainted with all the people within range and they have all explicitly agreed that it's cool for you to video everything they do for some reason (you're all doctors working on the same person?), be prepared for someone to stuff the shards of your glasses up your ass.
posted by pracowity at 3:13 AM on November 29, 2013

(sorry, meant to say "which I had not witnessed before in the wild.)
posted by threeants at 1:58 PM on November 29, 2013