Spend less time playing with featureless glass

Ok. So apparently Sergey Brin (seen here with an entire computer strapped to his face) thinks we should spend less time just “standing around rubbing this…"(smartphone/tablet)”…featureless piece of glass". He said this with an entire computer strapped to his face, covering his eyes.

He seems to feel smartphones are “emasculating” somehow. Not sure about that myself, but I’d love to hear him explain why a smartphone or tablet is more emasculating than, say, having an entire computer strapped to your face. That you have to stand around and rub in order to get it to start working.

If someone wants to start a campaign to encourage people to put down their smartphones a bit more and make sure that their smartphones are helping to manage their lives rather than completely take their lives over then sign me the hell up. But I don’t see how having a computer strapped to your face all the time improves things.

Right now, if I’m using my phone, this is a signal to other people that I’m busy or distracted. If I then stop using my phone and put it in my pocket then talk with you, this is a signal that I’m engaged with you. If I’m wearing Google Glass then this social cue is missed.

If I’m in the car and I want my passenger to pick our address while I concentrate on driving (perhaps I want to concentrate on navigating our way out of a busy city at rush hour) this is easy with conventional GPS devices and smartphone-based GPS - not so much with Google Glass. And sending or receiving messages via your Glass may be illegal in the UK:

Using hands-free devices when driving You can use hands-free phones, sat navs and 2-way radios when you’re driving or riding. But if the police think you’re distracted and not in control of your vehicle you could still get stopped and penalised.

I don't doubt that 'wearable computing' will be a thing in the future. I'm just not so sure this is the one.

On a side note, I must also have missed the announcement from Google and their Motorola subsiduary about ceasing any further development on Android, stopping phone and tablet product, etc. I’m sure it must be there somewhere though. I mean Google aren’t hypocrites after all, and I’m sure they’d hate to continue facilitating the emasculation of phone users everywhere.