The All-Seeing Glasses
“These glasses blur the line between celebration and control. Recording life’s details can empower individuals, but it can also tiptoe into surveillance territory. Will these innovations divide us or connect us further?”
When people see someone wearing glasses they often joke, “oh i guess you see me differently”. But no glasses wearers don't see you in a 0.5 view. They simply see the world in the view that their genetics dictated.
With the recent release of Ray Ban Meta Glasses, a collaboration between Ray Ban and Meta AI a company owned by Meta that develops artificial intelligence and augmented artificial reality technologies in 2015, the perspective of glasses has changed.
What used to be :
“Four eyes!”
“What, are you trying to look smart wearing it?”
“You're wearing it just for fashion!”
Has now shifted to:
“Can I try them on?”
“How much did you pay for those?”
“Can you ask your glasses which president is on the 2 dollar bill?”
As someone who's been wearing glasses since first grade, I've always seen them as more than just a necessity. They’ve been a tool in order to dominate in my classes and build my ego during school. Back in elementary school, going to my eyeglasses appointment meant picking from a limited selection of bland colors and uninteresting frames. Now I'm psyched for my visit, wondering what my eye doctor will offer in this new era of high tech eyewear.
The Ray Ban Meta Glasses signify the merging of new generations and new technologies to meet the modern human where they are at – in an advanced world. Consider this: many of the most vibrant personalities, those with a sharp aura, don't pursue content creating or become influencers. Why? Because content creation often comes with a hidden cost : social anxiety. The simple act of pulling out our phone to record an OOTD in a random McDonalds can feel nerve wracking and invasive.
Now with Ray Ban Meta Glasses, the game changes. Recording no longer requires holding a phone or attracting unwanted attention. Your glasses do it for you effortlessly and discreetly. The power to document life’s details is no longer limited to corporations; it's in the hands of people.
With this new profound power the question arises: how will people use new technologies to patrol life? Will they become tools for celebration and connection or devices of surveillance and injustice in the name of justice?
The Power & Fear Of Ray Ban Meta Glasses
To explore this, I spoke with Mr. Murray, a teacher at Comp Sci High and member of the PSL team. His initial reaction to the Ray Ban Meta Glasses was straight up legit.
“I don't like that, it scares me,” he said after watching the minute video ad from Ray Ban.
Mr/ Murray raised a crucial point about consent, emphasizing how laws and platforms are struggling with the ethics of recording: “In states like New York that have two party consent, users need permission to be recorded. Which is why every time you join a zoom call and the host records the session the message “your meeting is now being recorded” is played so that everyone is aware.”
Although he was fascinated by the cool tech, Murray worried about the misuse of Ray Ban Meta glasses’ recording capabilities. “Recording someone without their consent can introduce a lot of issues for inappropriate reasons,”, he said painting a grim scenario of how such technology could invade public and private spaces “Imagine someone recording an intimate conversion, or sharing a grieving person's vulnerability online for views or to simply mock them. It's a breach of trust.”
Potential & Pitfalls
“With Good Comes Bad” is a theme that seems evident through the purposes of the Ray Ban Meta Glasses.
When it comes to the good, Mr Murray acknowledged the practical benefits of these glasses. “It could be a great tool for teachers,” he suggested, envisioning a world where new educators could review their classroom participation, fix their teaching styles, or even experience their lesson plans from a student perspective
When it comes to the bad, these glasses could also help individuals document their day to day life effortlessly. If I had the pair of glasses I would never miss an OOTD. However, Mr. Murray raised a question: “Do you own that data?” Although we are witnessing and seeing those moments through our eyes the events are being taken/stored into our glasses. He pushed that those memories that you captured on your meta glasses aren't personal once they uploaded to the meta cloud, no longer making them private as they seem.
Tech For Connection Or Surveillance
The implications of such extravagant technology stretch beyond personal use. The everyday person would use them for personal memories and connections but we don't have to look that far in the past. Last week, surveillance technology did help the police capture Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown NYC. Murray said, “I mean the police would love us living in a state surveillance place.” He made this joke darkly, but his concern was clear.
Well, this isn't a stretch though because countries like China, an authoritarian regime, use AI surveillance to capture Uyghur Muslims, the opposed and discriminated group in China to promote “anti extremist ideas”.
These glasses blur the line between celebration and control. Recording life’s details can empower individuals, but it can also tiptoe into surveillance territory. Will these innovations divide us or connect us further?
A Shift in Social Dynamics
I see the evolution of smart devices as a double edged sword. Ray Ban Meta Glasses represent the emerging of generations, technology, and societal values. They hold the power to revolutionize education, personal connections, and creative expression. But there’s still a dark side. They challenge our understanding about privacy and trust.