Is wearable tech the next big thing, or has it already come and gone? Either way, it's the hot topic of 2014.
Blame Google, whose
Google Glass eyewear got everyone excited about something newer and trendier than an expensive smart phone (and made at least some people into instant
glassholes ), or blame Samsung's
Galaxy Gear watch, the
Pebble , and the
Nike Fuelband . It's easy to believe wearable computing is the
next wave of tech innovation. If so, we're not quite there yet, judging by reviews of current products. In fact, some pundits believe innovation is already beginning to
run out of steam .
Wearable tech is being attacked from all angles. While the techies wonder if Google Glass can
pass the ACID test , everyone else is just having enormous amounts of fun
parodying what a family full of wearable computer users might actually look like.
The
Guardian has an interesting review about
materialism and happiness in relation to the book by Graham Music entitled:
The Good Life: Wellbeing and the New Science of Altruism, Selfishness and Immorality . The thesis of the book appears to be that materialism and consumerism create unhappiness that can be exploited to perpetuate the cycle of getting ever more things. And, that this relationship may explain why inequalities get exacerbated by the wealthy with power.
Two quotes of note from the article and its sources:
- A study at Berkeley University, quoted by Music ... "The higher up the social-class ranking people are, the less pro-social, charitable and empathetically they behaved " consistently those who were less rich showed more empathy and more of a wish to help others.", and
- "Those with more materialistic values consistently have worse relationships, with more conflict," Music writes. "This is significant if the perceived shift towards more materialistic values in the west is accurate."
