^{Okay, so you just bought a pair of Meta glasses and now you’re walking home from the Meta Store (that’s a thing, right?) and all of a sudden, you see some guy crossing the street, wearing the coolest pair of sneakers. What. Are. Those?!?}

^{You whip out your phone and hurry to catch up to him and snap a quick photo of his feet (for research purposes!!), but you don’t want to seem like a creep—so what do you do?:}

^{_{A. Turn back and pretend you’re lost and confused}}

^{_{B. Catch up and ask him where he got his sneakers…you know, actually talk to another human being (as if!)}}

^{_{C. Put your pride aside and capture a quick image of those sneakers with your Meta glasses}}

^{If you chose C, awesome news, because that AI feature can analyze images in real time and when you prompt it, it can tell you exactly how to copycat that sneaker guy, you’re welcome.}

^{Per Meta’s website:}

“Meta AI is a helpful voice in your ear—ready with answers, ideas or directions when you need them. Seamlessly connected to your world, it sees what you see through your glasses, turning experiences into insights…”

^{But where do you draw the line with photographing or recording people?}

^{You’ve probably heard of manfluencers going up to women and capturing their interactions with said women via Meta glasses. Mmm. Fun.}

^{As for you, fashion lover, you could easily go from a few photos of cool outfits here and there to capturing images with your glasses daily. Then, perhaps, as time goes on, casually recording people becomes the new normal.}

^{There’s a term for this escalation. Aptly, it’s technology creep. Oh, no, no, not you. You’re great.}

^{Technology creep is…}

the slow, incremental expansion of technology into new areas of our lives, or the gradual, often unwanted accumulation of complexity, surveillance, and evolving functions in digital systems.

ASIDE: (The creep is also changing how we shop, too. According to this Yahoo! Finance report:

I recently went on the AI-powered shopping platform, Daydream, typed in “hot girl summer lbd”, and though I’m not super impressed with the first batch of results— long sleeves???—it was quick to tabulate alternatives and offer options at different price points.)

^{As for Meta, it certainly has privacy issues it should work out before the public feels more comfortable partaking in its new technology, and yet, all this hesitation just feels like déjà vu.}

^{LLMs, Meta glasses, miniature bodyguard drones that you can rent by the hour to follow you home and make sure you get in safely (okay, I made that last one up, but should I look into it???)…like with any new tech, people are wary at first before they eventually become so used to its ubiquity (or at least its advertising ubiquity) that adoption down the line is as sure as taxes and death.}

^{And the technology won’t stop coming.}

^{It’s coming.}

^{Oh, it’s already here.}

^{But how far and deep will you let it creep into your life, and, incidentally, into the lives of others?}