SMART NEWS

Seattle Dive Bar Bans Google Glasses

While the tech world debates the merits and pitfalls of wearing Google glasses, one bar in Seattle has made up its mind already

Rose Eveleth

Contributor

March 11, 2013

Image: infocux Technologies

While the tech world debates the merits and pitfalls of wearing Google glasses, one bar in Seattle has made up its mind already. It will not allow customers to enter with the augmented reality frames.

Geek Wire writes:

“I’m a thought leader,” jokes Dave Meinert, owner of the 5 Point, speaking on the Luke Burbank Show at our news partner KIRO-FM this morning. “First you have to understand the culture of the 5 Point, which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place. People want to go there and be not known … and definitely don’t want to be secretly filmed or videotaped and immediately put on the Internet.”

And here, Geek Wire asks people to react to the news:

The bar announced the ban on their Facebook page, writing:

For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses. And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators.

Comments on the post include things like “cyborg discrimination!” and “Why not release a 5-Point Neo-Luddite manifesto! No iPads, cell phones, lap tops, electronic lap dogs, etc… Why stop at Google Glass?” And then there’s this, from someone whose profile picture is actually an icon of Google Glass with a red strike through it:

I think it’s pretty good to ban. I don’t want my photo/video to be randomly uploaded to the internet when I am trying to have a private moment. All the more, i think washington is a two party consent state. Personally, if I suspected someone to photograph/videotape me without my knowledge, I would be pretty pissed off and ask them to delete it right there or I would just call the requisite authorities. I just like my life to be mine.

The bar then updated the announcement saying:

Sorry for another post on Google Glasses, but I have to address some of the people mad about our Google Glass ban. Look at this photo. C’mon, really? If nothing else, we’re saving you from looking like a complete idiot in public. You’ll be thankful in a few years when your kids grow up and don’t have to see photos of you wearing these ridiculous things. But then if you wear these things your chance of having children will go way down. Eh, so maybe they’ll be good for population control…

Forbes covered the shocking angle that, yes, indeed, this ban was more for PR than in response to any real fear that anyone would ever enter their bar wearing the glasses.