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Smart Glasses & Global Cultures
The face is our most culturally loaded part of the body. Why smart glasses may struggle in some cultures.
They’ve been around for well over a decade and have had, shall we say, a bit of a bumpy ride entering broader society. Smart glasses. The first major brand to launch was Google Glass back in late 2014. They probably experienced one of the fastest cultural rejections in the history of technology. They never reached mass market adoption, instead becoming a prized, but niche technology. Now Meta has released their version, Snap has them and there are plenty of other, smaller niche brands. Yet sales are increasing.
Most of the analysis, critiques and marketing of these smart glasses however, is from a very Western centric hum, view. What interests me however, and perhaps others, is how other cultures outside of the West, think of smart glasses and why broader adoption and thus sales, may happen outside the West.
How Different Cultures View Smart Glasses
First, a wee bit of context. Since the Stone Age, the ultimate arbiter of all technologies has been culture. Given how slow deep-rooted culture is to evolve, this is unlikely to change anytime soon. Much to the chagrin of many a tech company. No matter how big the marketing budget.
