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   I don't think it'll be too different from pulling out your phone from a politeness standpoint.

This is the point a lot of Glass proponents don't seem to get. They assume that not paying attention to you whilst looking at your face is somehow more polite than looking at your phone. It's not.

I suspect that over time Glass will become like Bluetooth earpieces. Perfect for use alone but a faux pas around other people.

A couple of differences.

First, vision is much higher bandwidth. You can glance at a notification and immediately know that you have a message, who sent the message, and how you received it. Takes half a second. Bluetooth earpieces are only suitable for sustained conversation. They are social faux pas because you are having a sustained conversation with someone else. This is not the case with HMDs - someone using a tool like Glass is actually more focused on their task and less distracted overall because they spend less time switching contexts. Citation: http://dmrussell.net/CHI2010/docs/p1695.pdf

Second, glancing at an HMD is fundamentally different from pulling out a cell phone because you're not looking away from the other person. It is difficult to emphasize how important this is to people who have not done work in this field. It is looking away that breaks conversations, not doing something else. Conversation continues to work as long as the other person thinks you're looking at them. And having an HMD on is close enough that people don't react to you jumping away into glass-land to look something up or jot down a note. This one doesn't have a citation, but I have spent several years taking classes from the guy who now runs the Google Glass project, and I can tell you this from direct experience.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: please, please try these things before you dismiss them. Social interaction is sufficiently complicated that experimentation is the only way to predict how people will react to something. And the experiments show that Glass works.

   It is looking away that breaks conversations, not doing something else.

You ARE looking away. And depending on how many messages you receive it could be just as irritating to the person(s) you're with as constantly checking your phone. Least of all the constant doubt about whether your conversation is being recorded or not.

I am not disputing their unquestionable usefulness I just have doubts they will be acceptable in most social situations.

From having tried Glass, I can affirm that you do indeed look away.

If any of you are wearing glasses, try looking at the top corner of your frame; that's the same motion needed to engage with Glass.

You'd effectively completely break eye contact with the person you're talking to and motion as if you're looking at something completely different. It's the equivalent of getting distracted by a cool car while your friend talks to you and you have to say "sorry, I saw a cool car, go on".

This interesting. Owning Glass, I can assure you that of is possible to maintain eye contact while viewing content. Depending on the amount of cognition needed to process the content, this perceived conversation might be broken.

I am keen to try reading while driving on an autobahn, is it save? Can I develop while looking out of the window? That would be great, this staring on a screen always felt somewhat autistic.

I don't know about you, but people that stare at me without keeping their eye movement dynamic are freaky and intense.

The thing I think will be weird is that Glass is in the upper right, and looking up and right is associated with creativity aka lying. Not sure why they didn't go with upper left, which is more associated with memory recall.

Both these eye movements happen in normal conversation btw.

Conversation continues to work as long as the other person thinks you're looking at them. And having an HMD on is close enough that people don't react to you jumping away into glass-land to look something up or jot down a note.

If I understand you correctly, you're asserting that talking to your glasses does not interrupt conversation?

> Second, glancing at an HMD is fundamentally different from pulling out a cell phone because you're not looking away from the other person.

I see this like conversing with someone that's looking past you: i.e. incredibly grating because you obviously do not have their full attention.

I think you are missing the point how looking at a cell-phone is impolite.

It's like this: you tell a friend about this cool new software but he thinks what do eat. Someone else tries to explain something to you but you figure how to solve that software bug.

When I was 16 or so, I stopped wearing a watch. Because so often I just looked at this watch, even when time did not matter so much. But this reflex raises your stress level. When I looked more often at the watch I remember people asking me whether I was in a hurry or something. Maybe I'm a bit extreme about that, but the fact is this: more multimedia, more distraction, more stress. Even more when we are talking about push updates.

It's annoying when someone glances at their wristwatch while you're talking to them, but I think that overall, wristwatches are a net benefit to society. Perhaps it will be the same with Glass.

I completely agree with you first point. It is very easy to forget that there's a vast range of people with very different viewpoints and beliefs than you. If you primarily meet people in tech, you are not meeting all sorts of people who may feel quite strongly that they don't want to be recorded.

"He also seems to feel very very strongly about this. I don't think many people feel the same strength of opinion towards Glass."

To me, those who dislike Google Glass mostly are those who have never tried it.

I know some people who disliked it but changed their mind after trying it out.

The social implication of wearing Glass is that your network notifications take priority over your conversation. When you get a call or email or text message notification during a conversation, you can choose to ignore it and leave the phone in your pocket, or covertly switch to silent mode. When you're wearing glass, the notification interjects itself physically between you and your conversation partner, indicating to them that it takes precedence. There is no way wearing Glass could be seen as anything but a slight to the people around you.

It does not "interject physically between you and your conversation partner", it becomes available in a corner of your vision away from your conversation partner and you can pause the conversation and look at that, or dismiss it just as you dismiss a vibrating cellphone.