Glass Explorers Receive Mostly Positive Attention

It is well known that Glass can cause certain reactions when worn in public, however if at the beginning people reported all kinds of negative reactions to it, it seems that now they’re getting used to the device and act rather curios than nervous when seeing Glass.

In a recent article from LA Times, JR Curley told Brian van der Brug that he owns a Glass since November 2013 and he hasn’t received any mean comments from the other people. Not only he hasn’t been asked to stop wearing the device in any public place, but people seemed quite ok with it also.

JR Curley isn’t a man that would easily escape your sight considering he’s 6 feet and 4 inches tall. However, since he’s wearing Glass, he’s been getting more attention than ever, regardless if he’s in the stores, doing groceries, on the street, eating in a dinner or having a walk through Disneyland. His Glass now catches everyone’s attention and he says that he is overwhelmed with people always trying to get more Intel on Google’s wearable device. His wife even jokes about the amount of time JR is spending letting them try Glass, or explaining how it works, saying that now she’s merely just a “Glass bystander”.

JR is also surprised at all the positive reactions from the public, knowing how controversial Glass is when it comes to its ability of taking photos or making videos when hearing a voice command, seeing a blink or a hand wave. Los Angeles seems to be a pretty open up town to new tech gadgets. So far, no one asked curly to take Glass off and no one made a malicious comment about it.
Actually, he had a harder time getting used to people taking photos of him with their smartphones, without being asked for approval first.

Curly is a design studio director in an accounting company, and he’s now living in Manhattan Beach. He says that the fact that now, there are a lot more people wearing Glass than a year ago, generated a broader understanding on Google’s device.

JR is part of the early Glass testers who say that they haven’t been receiving negative feedback from people, or little to be considered anyway. They are referring to the incidents other people have experienced when wearing Glass, as few and isolated, but have given Glass the statute of being an outcast.

But the stories are too many to ignore. Aside from the states that want to ban or already have banned wearing Glass when driving, considering the tiny screen a dangerous distraction from the road, we also have the San Diego woman that got pulled over for wearing Glass and people that have been tossed from movie screenings and theaters for the same reasons.

The incident that caused a lot more controversy than others was the one involving Sarah Slocum, a social media consultant who was attacked in a bar from San Francisco for wearing Glass. The bar owners said that she was recording people with her Glass, making them uncomfortable. Even though she denied, it was hard to believe she was telling the truth, because back in 2012 her neighbors got a restraining order on her name, accusing her of peaking their windows and recording them using a smartphone.

And the question remains: is Glass the device that will take away what’s left of our privacy, as most concerns say? Glass owners put all these worries under people’s natural fear of what they don’t know. Once people will start using the device on a large scale, these worries will cease to appear. Another argument they bring is that if you wanted to record someone, there are easier, less expensive and less obvious ways to do so, than wearing a computer strapped to your forehead.

Another early Glass tester, software developer Andrew Barash, aged 33, says that he hasn’t been receiving any bad attitudes from people when wearing Glass. People might joke around with him asking if they’re being recorded, but as far as this goes, the rest of them are eager to test it and see how it works. Andrew is convinced that as soon as people will start using the device, the fear of being invaded will simply fade away.

Google knows for sure that as soon as Glass wins over the public, it could lead to a wearable device revolution that will completely change the way people interact with one another and technology overall. It is definitely the most anticipated device since the iPhone or iPad.

JR Curly seems to be the perfect poster user for Glass, using it around 6 hours a day to communicate with his wife, make videos and take photos of his family and his experiences, as well as for finding navigation routes.

Right now, Curly cannot imagine using another device to do things he is now doing with Glass. He even went to say that he couldn’t imagine life without Glass. During the three days when he had to wait for a new Glass to arrive, he had to go back to his Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and he said that it was a burden to have to pull it out of the pocket every once in a while. But even with these people on their side, Google is still taking a lot of cautions and time before releasing it to the large public.

The giant search engine will release the device probably towards the end of the year. And considering the amount of controversy Glass received lately, Google is in over its head educating the population on how to use the device. Recently, they have given Explorers basic usage etiquette and safety tips, telling them to request permission before filming or photographing, just as with any other camera they’d use. And they even busted 10 of Glass’s myths.

In another recent statement, Google says that it is normal for them to educate people on how to safely use their new technology.

An IT technician from Indianapolis, Doug Scolnik, aged 32 says that he has received a few malicious comments during a game at the NCAA regionals, and he replied that he could do that with a smartphone as well. He says that he tries to point that out as often as he can and he also tries to get a deeper conversation o it.

During a Pacers game he attended a couple of weeks ago, the team was using the device. Everyone from cheerleaders, public announcer and staff were wearing Glass and streaming the footage on the arena big screens. He describes the experience as one of a kind, because it was the first time he was seeing other people using the device. The rest of the audience seemed quite thrilled about it too and more confident to ask questions.

Matt McGee, the founder of websites like A Glass wearer and Glass Almanac says that society will adapt to this new technology as it did with other new things. He compares Glass to the mobile phone apparition in 1980 and 1990. However, he does believe this accommodation take years, just as it did for smartphones to overcome the cellphones. He also points out that maybe in certain situations Glass owners should leave their precious devices at home and not wear them.

Another Glass testimonial comes from a lawyer in St. Paul, Minnesota, Damien Riehl, aged 33, who has been using Glass since December 2013. Damien likes to try new gadgets and considering his litigation practice with a main focus on technology he was certainly not going to miss testing Glass. He says that the main reason he decided to test it on was because he wanted to see how much personal information the device can gather and how would it affect a user’s online privacy.

From this perspective, Glass doesn’t soak more information than a regular smartphone, however that will change when Glass will have more features and apps. His main concern is about the facial recognition software and if it will still be banned in the future. On this matter, McGee believes that in then years from now, everyone will be laughing when thinking about how concerned we were now on Glass’s functionality.