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*[My last post](http://benng.me/blog/2013/06/01/all-that-shimmers-is-glass) addressed some common complaints about Glass, but ended up being misinterpreted as a review of the device. This post, like my last, isn't a review of Glass. While not the first wearable computer, Glass has become the poster child for the entire category of devices. When people have a problem with Glass, they often mean that they have a problem with the idea of wearing a computer on your face, not Glass itself. This post is about why you would want to wear a computer on your face.*
<span class="pullquote-right" data-pullquote="Glass is undoubtedly one of the most misunderstood materials we encounter in our daily lives.">
I want to start by talking about glass, the stuff we make windows out of. Glass is pretty misunderstood. When we think of glass the first adjective that comes to mind is something like *fragile*. Yet with science, [we've made it stronger than steel](http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/new-metallic-glass-toughest-strongest-material-yet). We've even discovered an interesting way to make it [both incredibly strong and brittle](http://youtu.be/xe-f4gokRBs?t=2m31s)2m31s. Even though glass has such strange properties, we've built some of the most beautiful buildings in the world out of it. Glass is undoubtedly one of the most misunderstood materials we encounter in our daily lives.
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Like its namesake, Google Glass is widely misunderstood. It's time to clear that up.
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##What Glass Does Not Do
<span class="pullquote-right" data-pullquote="We need Glass because technology has disconnected us from the world.">
We need Glass because technology has disconnected us from the world. We spend an absurd amount of time staring into screens, even when we're out and about. The teenager giggling at Snapchat as she waits for her Frappuccino. The business executive firing off an email before the seat belt lights go on. The significant other browsing Facebook at the restaurant table before the food arrives. We instinctively direct our gaze to the little screens in our pockets when life seems dull, and it's an incredibly difficult habit to break.
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<span class="pullquote-right" data-pullquote="The purpose of Glass is to help you get things done.">
So how is wearing a computer on our faces going to fix this? Unless we're at work, most of what we do when we look at a screen is consume content. Glass isn't a consumption device. The purpose of Glass is to help you get things done. If you look at the home screen of Glass, it's clear that this is not a device you use to entertain yourself with at a slow dinner. Glass is something you use to complete a task. While wearing Glass I got plenty of strange questions like "Can I watch a movie on it?". I suppose you could, but that would be like watching Lord of the Rings on a digital camera. That's not what Glass is for.
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##What Glass Does
<span class="pullquote-right" data-pullquote="Glass lets you use the collective knowledge of the human race to make the present more meaningful.">
Glass enhances your ability to do whatever you normally do. For example, I was browsing through books at a local bookstore when I encountered a book by an author I was unfamiliar with. Not a problem -- Glass read me a summary of his biography, which gave the pages I was skimming much-needed context. Glass lets you use the collective knowledge of the human race to make the present more meaningful. When WhenI was done, I snapped a picture of the barcode so I could buy it on my Kindle later.
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<span class="pullquote-right" data-pullquote="Glass discourages procrastination and helps you make the most of your time.">
Later as I was driving, an advisor from my college tweeted me with information about a class I was considering enrolling in. I was able to respond without taking my eyes off the road. I got hungry while driving, so I asked for restaurant recommendations and made a call to Dana about dinner plans without taking my hands off the steering wheel. By making tasks so easy to take care of, Glass discourages procrastination and helps you make the most of your time. If Glass saved you just five minutes a day, that adds up to over 30 hours over the course of a year. The average US worker only gets 12 days of annual leave, so how would you like an extra day off?
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##The Hero We Deserve
What I'm saying isn't just conjecture; I've experienced this liberating effect myself. After returning Glass today, I realized that my iPad battery was almost dead after days of neglect. When I woke it up, I had half a week of push notifications to swipe through. My Buffer account had been empty for days, and my Klout score had tanked. It worried me for a moment, before I realized that none of it really mattered after all.
<span class="pullquote-right" data-pullquote="It's freedom from endless streams of content and pages of glowing app icons.">
I felt fantastic. As I flipped through the timeline of beautiful photos and videos I had captured over the last few days I realized how liberating life with Glass was. It's freedom from endless streams of content and pages of glowing app icons. It's freedom from sitting down to take care of email. Glass got out of my way when I didn't need it, and enhanced my life when I wanted it to. Being so intimately connected to Glass made all the other devices in my life seem dull and unnecessary in comparison.
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<span class="pullquote-right" data-pullquote="Capturing a moment with Glass feels more like committing something to long-term memory than recording a video, and that's magical.">
To top it all off, I now have a beautiful photo album from a first-person perspective so I can experience those days all over again. I didn't even have to take my eyes off the world when I captured those shots. Would you rather watch fireworks or squint through a viewfinder now and see them later in iPhoto? Capturing a moment with Glass feels more like committing something to long-term memory than recording a video, and that's magical.
</span>
Glass is a different kind of device, built to save us from technology that has consumed us. I like the direction it's going in, and I can't wait for retail units to go on sale.
