Tag: #interactions

Prophecy News Watch: A Camera You Wear, Not One You Hold

Smartphones already made almost everyone a potential cameraman. But there is still an important social signal when somebody pulls out a phone and points it in your direction.

Smart glasses remove much of that signal.

They can resemble ordinary eyewear while containing cameras, microphones and AI capabilities. Instead of periodically deciding to take out a camera, the wearer can move through the world with the camera already positioned exactly where he is looking.

Researchers at the University of Sydney have described the phenomenon as “ambient capture.” Their ongoing study examined hundreds of social-media videos in which men wearing smart glasses approached women in everyday settings and secretly recorded the interactions for online audiences. The women were filmed in locations including workplaces, gyms and beaches, often apparently unaware that the conversation was becoming content.

A stranger may believe she is having a private, fleeting conversation.

The person across from her may know that thousands–or hundreds of thousands–of people could eventually watch it.
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Prophecy News Watch: Schools Are Already Offering A Warning.

One of the clearest examples is appearing in schools

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Futurism recently reviewed numerous videos filmed with smart glasses inside middle and high schools and posted to social media. The publication reported that teen boys were recording classmates, with girls frequently becoming the targets of harassment, unwanted attention and humiliating encounters.

That is more than another version of cyberbullying.

The possibility of online attention can become the motivation for the encounter itself.

A student wearing recording glasses can approach a girl, say something provocative, continue after she signals that she wants the interaction to end and capture the entire episode from his own point of view.

Then comes the second humiliation: the footage can be uploaded for an audience.

The incentives of social media make the problem even worse. Ordinary conversations are unlikely to generate enormous engagement. Awkwardness, conflict, embarrassment and outrage often do.

When attention becomes currency, provoking a stronger reaction can become part of the content strategy.

Schools are therefore offering an early glimpse of a much larger cultural problem.
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