We live in a society in which ever-changing technologies are almost necessary, for people get bored with the current ones in the blink of an eye. Some of the aspects of augmented reality are kind of cool, but others just seem to encourage laziness on the part of the consumer.
For instance, it would be nice to point your phone at a building to see what shops or restaurants are held within, for such an act is only slightly quicker than searching your location on Google then finding nearby venues. The same goes for real estate. What an idea to find a building in which you want to live, and instantly know if that dream is even possible, without having to look through the classifieds or Apartment Finder magazine or contacting a realtor.
On the other hand, how difficult is it really to go to the post office and find the box that fits your package before shipping? Not difficult at all. Besides, you have to physically go to the post office anyway, so why bother spending the time downloading the app, situating your package in front of a camera, and waiting for it to process the image and its dimensions before spitting back the size of the box (no matter how "instantaneous" the creators say the app is)?
Creepy was exactly the word I thought of about half-way through this piece. That, and "big brother." One "might learn just where in a foreign ministry building a potential source's office is." No matter how simple it is to locate someone's address or whereabouts on the internet, it does not need to be made easier by creating an app that will access just that information with minimal effort, especially in such an increasingly volatile world. This merely seems to me to be a way of making journalists' jobs easier. But the digging and getting your hands dirty has always been a part of the job. So that when you uncover something really juicy, you can break the story and get both the recognition and personal satisfaction from the hard work.
I suppose overall, some of the stuff seems neat and useful, but most of it seems novelty and unnecessary. While it won't necessarily narrow people's experiences, it will change them in a way that does not seem for the better.
I am also concerned with the "Big Brother" aspect of AR. Personally, I don't like posting too much information on SNSs sites. I don't like it when friends me into restaurants, either. However, I've learned to get used to this and understand that it is how we function now. AR, though, worries me because even more information, sometimes information that I don't even know, is public. Also, this information is now public for everyone, and not just those on my Facebook friend list.
ReplyDeleteI think your point is well taken. While everything that goes with AR is undoubtedly cool, it may not be a worthwhile trade. If the information could be found (if you were someone that had access to it), it is almost certainly unnecessary to have AR. I do think that some parts of life, like the post office example, could be made easier with the emergence and success of this technology, but what you seem to be pointing to is that it may be too much of a trade. Anairis makes a good point -- the information that people can get about us doesn't have to come from us, and with this technology, that "creepiness" could be even more prominent, or have real implications for our ability to have any privacy.
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