It seems that there are essentially two kinds of reactions to Google Glass on the Internet. People are either tremendously excited about the device, or they're worried about the privacy implications of the thing (Exhibit A: the question of whether or not Google Glass makes you an asshole).
But there is a third reaction that, surprisingly, doesn't get quite as much play: Google Glass may be just too darn dorky for most people to want to have anything to do with it.
According to Wired's Marcus Wholsen, Google Glass falls into a similar category as the Segway, the pocket protector and the Bluetooth headset: great ideas that couldn't make the cut in terms of style, and were thus doomed to fail.
"Forget about the privacy concerns for a second," Wholsen wrote. "I don't think you have to get that serious to recognize the inherent antisocialness of Google Glass. All you have to do is look at the guy in the picture at the top of this post. Or any of the rest of the guys on White Men Wearing Google Glass, a new Tumblr that serves up the data needed to transform the hypothesis 'Google Glass is too dorky to succeed' into a proven scientific theory."
Could it be that Google Glass is the kind of product that's created when the tech community becomes too insular and inwardly focused?
"Google Glass, like the Segway, is what happens when Silicon Valley spends too much time talking to itself. Maybe that's even overstating the case: The rhetoric around Google Glass is what happens when important tech people spend a little too much time congratulating each other," Wholsen continued.
Whether that criticism rings true or not, it's certainly a legitimate criticism that Google Glass doesn't exactly look stylish. Even Google recognizes this, and that's why the company is working with Warby Parker to try and make the device cooler. Sure, the glasses seen in images now are still kind of weird-looking, but by the time Google Glass is ready for retail it could undergo some serious tweaks.
Let us know your own thoughts in the comments. Is Google Glass cool-looking enough? Do you care?
