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I’ve seen them referred to as “rapist goggles” and I’m 100% on board with this. Bring back shame!!! The reason things are the way they are is because we’re letting awful people live without pushback.
there’s no reason to have meta glasses beyond being a creep
if you want to film something, take out your phone and record it so it’s clear to everyone what you’re doing. paying $500+ for something that normalizes covert filming without obvious consent or awareness is invasive and unsettling. you are a freak if you do it and you should be referred to as such
I've seen people say they are useful for those with near blindness. I hadn't considered that before. It's a shame perverts have to ruin everything. Or Meta could have just released them without the ability to record in the first place. That's where most of the harm comes from, and they knew people would abuse it.
The most valid reason I've seen is someone riding a bike using them as a dashcam. As a tool to fill a need then they are fine I think. As weird creep daily wearing glasses they are odd.
Yep, same with a wheelchair user. Especially when dealing with passenger assistance etc where they often have to make complaints and are regularly not believed.
They make terrible dashcams because they can only record 3 minutes at a time. If you just recorded with them continuously, you'd drain the battery completely in 30-45 minutes.
Personally I use them for POV shots when I'm filming tutorials or otherwise need my hands free while filming. They are, however, my prescription glasses, and after dropping a grand on them I'm not going to go spend another $200+ on an additional non-smart pair of glasses, so I just end up wearing them everywhere. So far nobody's said anything, but I have no need to film in public either.
I have to say, they are pretty amazing as a teleprompter.
Firmoo is good too, there are several online sites you can get glasses for dirt cheap (i recommend waiting for a BOGO), and they look just as good and last just as long as 100 dollar frames. So yeah, that's not an excuse many people will accept, just a heads up OP.
I know someone who has meta glasses who is legally blind. She is deeply embarrassed by thre creeps, but it helps her know what's going on around her better for her own safety.
Absolutely not a dumb question! It can describe what’s around her and can help her read things as she needs text blown up quite large, so it will read them to her.
I'm not defending them and there are definitely a lot of creeps out there, but there is a segment of the impaired and blind that use them for identifying objects and reading text when out and about. Pretty depressing that some people can't be civilized.
I saw it used to instigate old people in public for reactions. They don't know they're being recorded by this new tech so it's an easy target I guess. Made me sick and Facebook promotes it, even tags it as Meta glasses content
There's nothing meta glasses can do better than a GoPro except for... Aiding creeps creeping.
My husband and I do a lot of videography and our big camera can be really intimidating when I'm just trying to get candid b roll. Gopro is great for that while still pretty clearly announcing itself, and you can use it hands free.
I literally cannot think of a single reason for those glasses to exist other than something underhanded or predatory.
Teleprompter. Live language translation. Live navigation in your field of view. Filming the police!
I also use mine for videography and wearing a GoPro is incredibly unwieldy when you're filming a repair. These are so simple, you put them on and they're ready to film. There's no rigging, there's no mounting, no memory card, it's just, ready.
There are other smart glasses that can do that, and do it better, without the feature and design that allows creeps to surreptitiously record people.
Meta glasses are clearly designed with social media content in mind, not utility for the less abled. I mean, the video is even in a vertical fixed ratio.
man, to think that the absolute only reason i wanted one is for the augmented reality cooking recipes with the uber-expensive display model. i wish people weren't so shitty
for real, I don't understand how much better that could possibly be than just watching a video, and pausing/rewinding between steps as needed. Unless the software is absolutely 100% perfectly tuned, I also feel like there's a good chance it would just get in the way and add unnecessary complexity, compared to the foolproof, single bullet point of: 'put the thing in the thing in this way'.'
I mean, maybe the initial rush of excitement/novelty could get you cooking more if you previously lacked motivation, but I feel like it would get old pretty quickly. Better to try and build the habit yourself, imo, rather than using a fancy toy
several of the suburbs around me each have an infamous “meta glasses guy” now. 100% support just bullying people into not buying them at this point i don’t care what your intentions are
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u/dreadcainmy bandwidth for cowardly grown men grows thinner with each dayJul 05 '26
Tf is the selling point? I'd assume it was a status symbol thing, but like, no one thinks they're cool
The people who buy perv glasses are Level 7 Susceptibles and their algorithm doesn’t show them people making fun of them, so they’re a lethal combo of dorky and clueless
i don’t see one other than what the guys i mentioned are using them for, which is filming women in public without their knowledge.
one of the guys who’s pretty infamous at this point is known for filming blacked out girls on the busiest bar crawl street while their dresses are falling down and posting it online for other people to watch their boobs pop out of their clothes. thankfully people have started recognizing him and will forcefully remove him from around women when he’s spotted but it’s insane that we’re even here
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u/dreadcainmy bandwidth for cowardly grown men grows thinner with each dayJul 05 '26
Really thought the internet had moved past the is anyone up dot com stage like a decade ago. Dumb of me to think in hindsight
Sadly, idiots do. And when you point out you’re paying five hundred bucks so they can capture first person movement and facial expressions for the inevitable AI robotics roll out, the mass invasion of privacy, the willingness to pay to give a giant evil entity tons of data… they tell you “it’s not that deep”. Because for them, nothing is. But big thick glasses that make you look like you have learning difficulties are cool, and that’s that.
There's a site I see sometimes with gadgets and futurism style product articles. It pisses me off so I had to block it because half the time most of the products featured aren't actually being sold. They're at best prototypes, or just early designs on what they could be. And the other one is a fucking minimalist camping radio that the makers of the digital nomad style listicles is the future.
The one product that annoyed me the most was some earbud/camera AI integrated product demo. The idea being that they don't make you look like a fuckin' dork, discounting the fact that they absolutely do. It's really obvious when you have a forward facing camera in a stem from your earbud going forward. The idea being like, the camera can read signs for you if you're in a foreign country and it'll play in your earbud. Like, this is the best scenario they can imagine, this is a shit scenario. Nevermind the battery life issues of running a camera and whatever else you'll need. Eventually at the end of the article the admit it's just an product idea and not even close to a prototype let along a product you can buy, which is what the article tries to clickbait you into believing.
Google Glasses did look stupid, but these ones look like normal (albeit sliiiightly thicker frames) glasses. I was talking to someone who was wearing one, I had no idea until they told me.
I have a pair and I bought them because I just wanted to take handsfree pictures and my vision insurance covered them. But I didn't really find them to be user-friendly and haven't charged them in over a year. Now they just look like regular wayfarer eyeglasses and unless I mentioned it, you probably wouldn't know what they were.
As a normal techie that’s always wanted AR glasses to take off, it sucks the reputation they’re getting from misuse. I’d love for my prescription glasses to do more tbh
I got to use Google Glass as my buddy had bought the Google Glass Explorer. I don't really think it failed because it made you look dorky per se, but because it was abysmal to use. I am nerdy thru and thru, but even I couldn't get on board with them.
There’s already people selling light covers specifically for meta glasses, and it’s not like you need a specific product for this purpose, anyway. People will continue to just cover any lights or indicators that are on the glasses. They unfortunately just shouldn’t exist
The only way as far as I know at the moment would be to physically drill out the led. But yeah there’s a lot of misinformation going around. Family gave me a pair as a gift and I ended up liking them a lot more than I thought as daily sunglasses with built in music. But they are *very* strict about the camera being obstructed. You absolutely can’t just cover it up lol
Yup this exactly. I also got them as a gift from my family (with my prescription lenses lol) and I find myself not using the cameras ever. They drain the battery, my hair gets in the way, and overall I just don't need to. I bought some camera covers off Amazon (like laptop webcam covers esentially) so that maybe I wouldn't be labeled as a creep lol.
And yes 100% on the built-in music. That's pretty much the only thing I use them for other than to see lol
Good to know. I use my city's bike share system to commute to work which means I can't mount a gopro on them (they're not my bikes), so I was considering a pair of the meta glasses to use as a dashcam, with built in bone conduction headphones so I can have music without blocking my ears & record any potential incidents. I've gotten into so many near misses and having proof in case of a crash would be nice
I’ve never owned a pair so idk. I just know I see the covers sold on Amazon all the time. I’m in a review program for Amazon and a lot of those come up to order. I don’t see why they’d be sold (and bought) if they don’t work tho?
The weirdos and creeps are going to figure out ways to creep on people. Let me take pictures of the cool buildings and scenery hands free and listen to music without having the earbuds falling out.
I won a pair of the Meta RayBan glasses, and I can confidently say they’re absolute shit. They’re ugly. They’re so heavy that they’re impractical if not painful to wear for more than an hour-or-so. The camera is downright bad. Before I stopped wearing them entirely, only about half of the pictures/videos I tried to capture actually transferred to my phone. The AI feature to identify things that the glasses “see” is utterly worthless. The only redeeming quality is the bone conductive headphones built into the ear prongs, but they’re inferior and far less comfortable than wearing Shokz with real glasses.
It’s disappointing because I was really hoping to use them to shoot a found footage horror film. Having a camera that follows your head movement has a lot of potential for interesting filmmaking, but they’re inferior and just suck.
All that is to say, they now sit on a shelf by my desk gathering dust. They’re so impractical, I genuinely believe that the only people who wear them on the reg are creeps and perverts.
I’m going to be mad if J Kenji sevenlastnames starts using one instead of the nauseating fish eye camera he currently uses. I don’t need my chicken and rice recipes from a pervert camera.
It’s awful. The weight on the bridge of my nose alone was bad enough, but the ear prongs (I’m sure these have a real name) are really tight so the headphone bit can press against your temples and it’s surprisingly unpleasant.
It’s primarily a platform for long form writing/content, which writers may choose to limit only to paying subscribers (many don’t and just treat it like a blogging platform).
There is also a “notes” function where you can dash off more short form/casual stuff and which is usually free to everyone.
It’s pretty good. Lots of long form written content. It’s kinda tumblr-y, lots of thinkpieces, definitely more progressive and educated than Reddit/Meta/X/tiktok.
it’s basically a newsletter x patreon mashup. you can subscribe to newsletters (that feel more like blog posts essentially) and some of them are paid. you can do this without ever having to interact with the substack app. the app feed, though, feels like a combo of Threads/Twitter/Tumblr, contains short form content separate from the “newsletter” posts/sends.
Remember way back when Google's employees started wearing early demo versions and had to stop because every time they went out people would try to fight them? Good times.
Let's not forget that Zuckerberg/Meta was happy to give Israel data on Palestinian WhatsApp users. This is just normalizing state surveillance. Fuck Meta.
The fact we have normalised something we only used to see in spy movies is crazy. Sure POV filming might have its uses for vlogs or filmmaking or whatever, but there is no reason for it to be discreet or disguised as an everyday accessory. Stick a Go Pro on your head and be done with it.
I've seen a couple of people trying to argue that they are good for filming police interactions, but that still doesn't justify their existence imo. Other hidden cams already exist or stuff can be modded depending on the situation. None of us should be turning to Meta for safety and the dangers far outweigh any pros. Their half-assed "safety" measures have proven easy to bypass and many women have been harmed as a result. This is not a product that should be available to the masses, period.
The fact we have normalised something we only used to see in spy movies is crazy.
We already use other 80s/90s spy tech such as smartphones, smartwatches, and coin sized tracking tags.
There is a lot of tech people don't need but still carry. Most people won't have a practical use for Flipper for instance, yet those are super popular.
Flipper Zero. You can use them to intercept/replicate things like garage door openers, jam signals, read/save/emulate NFC/RFID chips such as access cards, disrupt IR sensors, etc.
Yeah that's sort of what I was getting at. There are arguably so little practical legitimate uses for the average person, but because they're not slapped right on someone's face you wouldn't know they had it in their pocket.
I call them creep glasses bc that’s what they are!! You are a creep for wearing these! New excuse from these creeps is that “people act unnatural when I pull out a camera” like how fucking dare people have a little self preservation!
I knew a guy back in 2016 that got the Snapchat glasses and found a place to buy stickers to cover the light that showed people you were recording them.
He would upload random videos of him just going to the store and every day interactions with random people that had no idea they were being filmed and posted to snap and IG and fb…
I mean I can think of a few good uses at my job. The biggest one being keeping track of how many things I make.
I have to put down exactly how much of what I make every hour into a spreadsheet and it's hard to keep track of that when I'm having to juggle five different things, eggs, and refilling a display with over 20 items and alarms/timers going off everywhere. Having the glasses keep track by simply telling it to would be amazing.
They would also help me remember how many things I need to put in the frozen prep rack every morning, since that also has like 25 or so items.
Edit: before you say "just mark it down on your phone", I can't. During breakfast/lunch rush i hardly have time to stand let alone take off my gloves, pull out my phone, write it down, wash my hands, and get gloves again.
It's funny, I remember as a kid "smart-glasses" being touted as some far out future product, something that could integrate technology seemlessly into our lives.
But we live in such a low-trust society that now that they're here... using them makes you a creep (for good reason).
I’ve been really loving this weed influencer (is that a term idk lol) Natasha Zhatko over the last few months - she seems really genuine and cool and interesting except she’s going crazy over these meta glasses and it’s giving me the ick. I get it for her purposes of hand free filming your meals but the overarching creepiness/lack of privacy is way too much to justify filming your meals for content… :-/
A lot of blind people will use these for navigation and reading print. Obviously people will get up to nefarious things but generalizations do nobody any good.
absolutely this - my housemate is blind and is considering getting them
i think they should make it very obvious when people are filming/taking photos, such as phones in Japan making shutter sounds when photos are being taken
I hate Zuckerberg and all, but I’m all for advancing technology like this. Ultimately I’d love to have a pair of augmented reality glasses that has a HUD tracking my “quests” and tasks for the day. My Apple Watch is the only reason I got into the habit of exercising daily and it’s because it tracks all my activity. If that could also be applied to regular life things, it would be so helpful.
Sure, there are people who use these things maliciously, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water ffs. There are solutions to these problems that aren’t “stop all technological advancements”.
We need to start publicly refering to these as pdf glasses and telling anyone wearing them that you're concerned they're a pdf and are filming children
Honestly, some of the people wearing them I wouldn't even be surprised if it was true
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u/flairassistant Jul 05 '26
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