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I’ve seen a lot of videos on social media recently where people wearing the Meta glasses are called out for filming others without asking. One video featured a gross dude making a woman uncomfortable before another man stepped in to shame him for using the glasses. Largely, however, most of these videos that come across my various feeds seem to capture conversations and events where the other party is unaware that there’s a camera in the lens of the other’s eyewear. It’s sinister as all hell and I hate it. The modern panopticon of surveillance is now the hottest influencer trend of 2026.
Created in partnership with the glasses brand Ray-Ban and the almighty harbinger of evil that is Meta, smartglasses are essentially wearable computers, with cameras and open-ear speakers built into the snazzy frames. Smartglasses predate this brand — remember Google Glass? — but now the formula has seemingly been perfected and are available for all. The companies pushed Meta Glasses with a major marketing campaign that included Chris Hemsworth, eager to sell them as cool and necessary to one’s fast-moving life of always-online influencing. Suddenly, it seemed like every creep had them.
Let’s be clear here: Meta Glasses are awful, both for our right to privacy and for our species’ ability to separate itself from a cycle of corporate media monopolies that have made us addicted to their toxic algorithms. Meta defended its product against the privacy invasion claims by insisting that the small LED light activated when recording would be a good enough indication for someone to know they’re being recorded. It’s not, and that’s before we get into the fact that it’s pathetically easy to modify your glasses to disable or conceal that light. Meta is clearly trying to legally cover its arse by providing the weakest of user guidelines over avoiding crowded or sensitive environments when filming, surely they’re aware of who their target demographics are for such a product?
Truly, who are these glasses for, if not creeps, misogynists, and cops? So far, it’s been a predictable stream of pick-up artists, trolls, and right-wing grievance bullies in Meta Glasses eagerly mining the world for human discomfort. The only people who want to surreptitiously film things and people without their consent are those who have unsavoury agendas, let’s be clear here. I don’t care if your influencer job where you show off your daily pilates routine or the sandwiches you’re eating are impossible to shoot with a normal camera or even your phone, and frankly, I find that defence hard to swallow. What circumstances are so crucial for you to be wearing something that is constantly filming the world and that most people may not even know is a camera? Try and claim that’s an altruistic cause, go on.
It’s genuinely terrifying how commonplace being filmed by strangers has become. I remember, several years ago, when a wannabe influencer faced backlash for live-tweeting a conversation between two strangers on a plane and spinning it into a grand love story. Now, dozens of variations of this snooping happen every day and barely anyone bats an eyelash. I don’t live in a large city, but I’ve still seen people with ring lights and mini microphones eagerly trying to become man-on-the-street influencers, badgering strangers for easy content. And as someone who wears glasses to, you know, see, it’s unnerving to know that someone might see my eyewear (which isn’t Ray-Bans but a similar style) and worry I’m live-streaming their day without asking.
Cory Doctorow’s theory of enshittification is rooted in the tried and proven cycle of tech giants building a popular and useable product, then gradually making it worse for customers so that they can maximize profits for shareholders. Facebook/Meta is the prime example of this, going from a perfectly fine social networking platform to connect with friends to an overpowered behemoth of radicalisation, addictive algorithms, and inflated metrics that killed entire industries. In an endless search for more money and power, for more sources of revenue beyond bored aunts clicking on AI-generated ads of crocheted puppies, Mark Zuckerberg’s offerings have gotten increasingly flop-sweaty. He tried to convince us all that NFTs were the future. When that didn’t work, he doubled down on the Metaverse, a Second Life-esque online community with PS1 graphics that held no appeal to anyone (see Dan Olson’s video on Decentraland for a deeper dive.) Now, Meta Glasses are his newest fad, one he claims he cannot see a future without us all having them.
This one is somewhat more accessible than ugly ape cartoons and Bitcoin investments, but it’s also, as is befitting the enshittification model, trying to force us to accept something as inevitable when it’s clearly not. AI bros are dependent on the same argument. Our future is not impossible without wearable CCTV that turns us all into creeps and snitches. Recently, it was reported that Meta wants to implement facial recognition technology into the glasses, a possibility that is so petrifying that it should inspire public revolt.
Why would we ever trust the words of people who have sold our data multiple times over to make our lives worse? They want you to believe that you’re constantly unsafe and to stoke that paranoia with more and more cameras. They need you to behave as though being filmed 24/7 makes you safer and anyone who disagrees must have something to hide. This is the same line of logic being used to defend companies mining your private information to train AI models. You own nothing in this hellscape, according to these entities.
So, it becomes our duty to shame the f*ck out of anyone wearing Meta Glasses in public. These losers should be chastised and mocked in the same way as Cybertruck owners. It should be the ultimate sign that you’re a waste of space to be seen in Meta Glasses. Indeed, it might actually be a matter of public safety to call these weirdos out whenever we see them. Businesses need to prohibit their use within their establishments. They should be banned in public spaces. Until that happens, and until our feckless world leaders develop enough spine to legislate, we need to humiliate these weiners. We need the world to know that the snitches who willingly pay hundreds of dollars to become baby cops are pathetic losers who should be called out as such at every possible opportunity.
Recently, one savvy person made an app to help detect nearby Meta Glasses usage. It’s a small step forward but a crucial act of rebellion against the surveillance state and Zuckerberg’s calculated stupidity. In a world where it feels like we have so few options to fight back against the rich and powerful, embarrassing them is always a potent weapon.
