‘Dorky’ Google Glass compared to the Segway, pocket protectors

Is Google Glass the next major revolutionary portable communications device or is it just a novelty item that will be used by socially awkward dorks? That’s the question that Wired’s Marcus Wohlsen tried to answer while coming down definitively on the side of “Glass is for dorks.” In his argument, Wohlsen knocks the “inherent antisocialness of Google Glass” and says that Glass “is what happens when Silicon Valley spends too much time talking to itself.” He then goes on to compare Glass unfavorably with pocket protectors, the Segway and Bluetooth headsets, all of which sound like reasonable ideas but have been scorned by all but society’s misfits. While it’s unclear that Glass really deserves to be compared to the very dorky Segway just yet, Wohlsen does have a point that perceptions of Glass will rapidly sour if Glass users are generally oblivious to their surroundings, and if they don’t pay attention when talking to others because they’re too busy looking at weather reports being projected onto their eyeballs.