Back in the Industrial Revolution, the Luddites (the original ones) set about destroying the cotton mills that replaced them and all of their hard labour. Fast-forward – or high-speed scrub – to today’s technological revolution, and luddites have something extra to get grumpy about. Not only are all of these gizmos and whizzbits and bits and bobs taking the place of people’s jobs, but they also think their infringing on our privacy. At least, that’s what led to tech blogger and PR worker Sarah Slocum allegedly being attacked in a bar.
A strong advocate of Google Glass, Sarah had been given a pair of the super-futuristic glasses to wear about. ‘People are excited and they're curious. They want to try it on and see what it’s like,’ she said of how people are up for interacting with the ‘Glass,’ as we’re meant to call it.
But Slocum, 34, ran into some trouble in one San Francisco bar, Molotov’s (which Google – that old chestnut – tells us that it’s a ‘punk bar’). Two women got upset she was using Glass and started shielding their faces. One made an obscene gesture, before a male companion of theirs ‘charged’ at Slocum and told her he didn’t want to be filmed. One woman then threw a bar rag at her and another told her ‘you're killing the city,’ before the man allegedly ‘ripped [the Glass] off' her face and ran out of the bar. After a scuffle outside, where she begged the man to not take her $1500 (£900) Glass, he returned it to her. But when she went back into the bar to discover her bag, keys, purse and phone had all been stolen.
'The crowd was jeering as any last call crowd would do with a fight outside of a bar,' Brian Lester, an onlooker, told local radio. ‘She was running around very excited… and people were telling her: “You’re being an ass, take off those glasses.” I think everybody was just upset she would be recording outside of a bar this late with obvious embarrassing behaviour going on.’
In case you're wondering, Google does have have got set of social etiquette guidelines for the Glass users to follow: ‘The Glass camera function is no different from a cell phone so behave as you would with your phone and ask permission before taking photos or videos of others,’ it reads.
And this experience won’t stop Slocum from using her Glass again. ‘I don’t want people to see me without Google Glass now. Now people know this happened to me, I don’t want them to think I am afraid to wear it.’ In fact, she thinks someday soon we'll all be just like her. ‘They are going to sell like hot cakes. Everybody hating on it now are going to be wearing it in six months to a year.’ But, really?
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson– or, just stare at the computer hard enough with your Google Glass on and you can see into her soul instead.
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.