It's a Monday morning, so you roll out of bed, quickly put on your glasses, and instantaneously are immersed in a different world. As you inch into your slippers, a picture gets taken of your bare feet. As you make your coffee, a video records the beans grinding. When you step outside and ask a question about the weather, a voice in your head answers. This is the future of technology, except it is happening right now.
With Meta’s new Ray-Ban glasses, users have access to a live camera, microphones, ear speakers, and even a virtual assistant. While some people may explode at the promise of innovative technology, in reality, these glasses are unnecessary and can even be dangerous.
In 2024, the average worldwide screen time per day was six hours and 40 minutes, and in the United States, it was a staggering seven hours and three minutes. This is around half of the time that humans spend awake each day. Given this, increasing one’s screen time would be a concerning decision, as it would take away from the pleasures of living in the moment.
While the glasses are nonessential, it is hard to deny that they are pretty cool. The innovative features allow users to easily disconnect from external matters, and the technology itself can provide a nice break from a phone. If used in moderation, the glasses could prove to be a substitute, or a complement, to the everyday phone.
The glasses’ unique ability to translate real-time speech between English, Spanish, French, and Italian is something that makes them special. According to TechCrunch, “when a wearer is talking to someone speaking one of those languages, they’ll hear what the speaker says in English through the glasses’ open-ear speakers and get a transcript on their paired phone.”
However, there are hidden dangers in the glasses as well. Unfortunately for Meta, the Ray-Bans have quickly unleashed some turmoil into the world. In New Orleans, Louisiana, a man named Shamsud-Din Jabbar devastatingly killed 14 people in a terrorist attack in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day. Jabbar was reported to have been wearing the Meta Ray-Ban glasses during the incident, as well as weeks prior when he scoped out the path he would take to unleash havoc on the streets of New Orleans. FBI officials believe that Jabbar used the glasses’ camera and video functions to stealthily record the target neighborhood.
All in all, are these smart glasses a useful invention? Probably not. Nowadays with all the current accessible technology, the need for the Meta Ray-Ban glasses is not urgent whatsoever, and have so far done more bad than good for our society. As the glasses continue to update and change, there is a possibility that they could be more resourceful, but at this very moment, they have proven to be redundant and even dangerous.