Tom Shields on … you’ve been glassed

THERE’S enough of it on the street already. People speaking to themselves. I used to ask, in the manner of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver: “Are you talking to me?” Call me old-fashioned, but I still can’t used to people indulging in public telephonic communication when they are not in a phone box.

It will get worse when everyoney starts talking to their spectacles. Google is getting ready to market a device called Glass. It is a pair of specs that is really a small computer screen.

Just say: “OK, Glass, take a photo” and a snap will be done of whatever you’re looking at. Or a video made.

There’s more. It will no longer be sufficient to inform all your friends via Facebook that you are in Starbucks having a coffee. You must share the experience live onscreen. Tell them: “Look, I’m having a blueberry muffin with my Americano.”

You can google a map to find out where you are. In theory you can cheat in the pub quiz. Although saying to your specs “OK, Glass, what was the currency of Ecuador until the year 2000?” may give the game away.*

In theory you might say whilst out clubbing: “OK, Glass, take a video of that extremely fit blonde over there in the short skirt.” This may be problematic in a society where a sore face can be had for looking the wrong way at some macho maniac’s girlfriend. You might get glassed.

In theory, you can go to a party and use face recognition to check out fellow guests