It was a lot easier in the past to label cool looking people socialising with their buddies while wearing sunglasses indoors, as being pretentious. That was until I reaped the unintended benefits of forgetting to charge my bluetooth earphones before leaving the house, and then finding that they acted as exquisite reality softeners; a device for when the intensity of real life needs the bite taken out of it.
Glasses that not only allow us to see, but allow us to see less. Earphones used in order to allow us to hear less. Many people these days use their mobile phones in order to not have to talk to others, and will pretend there is someone on the other end of the line to reduce the anxiety caused by having to wait alone in public for a friend to arrive. I've had many great conversations with myself over the years as the actual friend I'd be waiting for took forever to get there, and my phantom phone friend would find themselves obliged to probe deeper and deeper into the minutiae of gibberish I'd be spouting at them.
It got me thinking about the class of technologies which return once again to their former evolution when they are without power. Like escalators robbed of electricity, that suddenly find their hypnotic majesty has been taken away from them without warning, and have been forced to return to their former lives as excessively ornate stairs. This must be a crushing fall from grace for something which knows it is capable of so much more.
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