> Can you imagine trying to talk to someone face to face, but they are giving you a blank stare as random notifications and tiktok videos are being beamed inbetween their eyeballs and you.

They wouldn't do this if the conversation is important to them. Not as much as one would glance on a smartwatch when they get a chirp, which, I believe is perfectly socially acceptable in most business/casual situations.

And if they do it's nothing new - it's a literal equivalent of talking to a person deep into their phone. Exact same audiovisual media consumption - just a different form factor and display technology. Or, in a pre-phone era, a newspaper.

I don't think this technology introduces anything new to this issue.

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brandon272 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

It's quite different. Both are rude. But in one case the person is looking at their phone, and in another case the person is basically looking directly at you but engaged with some other thing happening on their device, as if they are in some drug induced stupor or having a neurological episode.

	▲	jkestner 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		The visual equivalent of the etiquette breaches when Bluetooth earpieces became a thing.

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everdrive 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>I don't think this technology introduces anything new to this issue.

This belief shows up time and time and again and is nearly always false. We had the written word before the internet, and before the printing press, so blogs are just like a hand-written letter. Gossip has always existed, so twitter does nothing new. There have always been things which eat at our impulse control, such as sports gambling and casinos, so smart phones are nothing new. etc.

What this view really fails to understand is that the constant here is human nature. Human nature is built more or less the same way as it has been for thousands of years. What changes is how technology allows human nature to play out, whether or not any given technology interacts poorly with human nature. New problems can exist purely based on scope, scale, reach, ease-of-use, lack of friction, etc.

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drdaeman 5 days ago | parent [-]

Very fair point, thank you! I'm not sure I entirely agree with everything, but I was definitely missing the change in the accessibility of the disruptions. You're probably right that the more immediate the notification is, the higher are the chances that it'll interfere with our attention in a way that's could introduce some undesirable effects. Definitely there's a difference between a mail arriving, phone or watch buzzing, and something instantly appearing in the visual field.

	▲	everdrive 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks for the response, and I apologize if I came off too sharply!

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heavyset_go 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The glasses close the attention loop faster, and the brain really, really likes quick stimuli -> dopamine release loops.

The faster it happens, the more addictive it is. It's the difference between oral administration of drugs and IVing them directly into one's veins.

	▲	hengheng 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		I don't even think it's cynical anymore to assume that this is the entire reason why Meta are pursuing this. They see themselves in a race to produce the most radical, most efficient machine that produces the most effective addictive response. Content has been interchangeable for decades, everything is about the naked control over people's attention, because that is having power over people. There is a very modernist logic in the whole effort. Everything must be taken to its extremes, nothing is ever enough, and nothing good sits in the middle of anything, and having values is only a detriment in this race.

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Vinnl 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Possibly I'm a horrible conversation partner, but even today already it happens with some regularity that someone is checking their phone while I'm in a conversation with them. It's even more common in group conversations.

And tacking on some personal experience, I've also noticed when I'm meeting over Zoom (i.e. with the rest of the internet within arm's reach), I get distracted way more easily than when meeting in real life. Sure, maybe not all those meetings are super important to me, but I'm not sure if the world would be a worse place if that wasn't possible.

	▲	kqr 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I try to put on a friendly tone and say "I'll continue once you're done with whatever you need to do on your phone". Sometimes it really was something important (the last few seconds of an auction is the common, time-sensitive case) but most of the time they realise the faux pas they committed and are apologetic about it.

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j4coh 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You can tell that some people who grew up addicted to video content already sort of just stare at the real world like they are watching a video and don't quite realise they are present. If they were wearing glasses where they were actually watching videos while they stare into space not much would change.

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inerte 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I disagree because the apps are designed to be addictive, so the conversation might actually be more important, the person might agree and say the conversation is more important, but they can't control themselves. It's hard to muster the willpower to fight "social" media.

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jajko 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

No its not perfectly socially acceptable, in contrary. Rude is the best description, be it personal or professional life.

When I see such person who simply can't resist looking at their displays during conversations, I know I am seeing a hard addict with host of other attention disorders. And the fool is feeding those, actively making them worse for some ultra short dopamine kicks that keep getting shorter till they make new baseline.

Not a stellar person in any meaningful way, rather an addict or an asshole. So much for perfectly acceptable.

	▲	drdaeman 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Are we talking about momentarily checking if there's an important interruption and continuing with the conversation? If so, I'm confused as to why you possibly think it's unacceptable and rude. I can see how this could be considered rude in a very formal setting, or when matters of high importance are discussed and uninterruptible focus is a must. But for most casual situations, I perceive glancing at incoming notification as normal. Assuming this happens reasonably infrequently, of course - that is, a glance in a while, not constant checking every other minute.