The Vision Pro? Daddy, chill
Why can't we all get along?
The Vision Pro may be the finest example of what’s ailing us culturally.
I wrote about Apple’s just-launched headset when it was first announced, and my opinions on it have not changed.
They can be summed up as thus: it has great potential, but until this hardware can be replicated in something the size of a regular pair of glasses, it’ll never truly take off.
Alongside the hardware though, I also talked about spatial computing in general and how it’s designed to isolate. The fundamental idea of computer goggles is to capture our attention to such a point that we’re always looking at something.
In other words, it’s a cocoon. A way of shifting us from being part of something, into solo containment. A logical outcome of the intense personalisation of the modern world.
What I’ve found interesting though is the release of the Vision Pro showcases the step before this individualistic fracture: our cultural split.
Unsurprisingly, people have been very active online about the Vision Pro — and they’ve fallen into two main camps.
The first are what I’d call bootlickers:
Bootlickers are those who made a product released by a global corporation their personality.
To them, there’s nothing weird or disconnected or vaguely terrifying about the Vision Pro, it’s something to be defended to the hilt and praised like some sort of god.
I can understand why it attracts a certain type of person. The Vision Pro is main character energy in hardware form.
Everything happens to you. Other people can’t see it or get involved. They’re little more than NPCs in your marvellous, techno-vision.
Caset Neistat’s video sums up that sort of main character, bootlicker approach perfectly.
The Vision Pro is just one example of this bootlicking mentality, you see it everywhere from Elon Musk to Brexit. Everything’s great, and if you disagree, you’re an idiot.
Then you have the other side, people I’d refer to as contrarians.
Their shtick is making disliking something their personality. Something like the Vision Pro isn’t mediocre or disappointing, it’s the worst thing since the plague.
I won’t lie, if I was going to fall into any of these groups, it’d be the contrarians.
They refuse to see the benefits or excitement in anything. When something new comes out, the idea is to find the fastest and snarkiest way to call it shit.
As funny as this can be, it’s also flat and empty and uninspired.
This polarisation between bootlickers and contrarians is nothing new — it’s simply that the Vision Pro launch is a crystal clear example of it happening.
If you want to find a balanced opinion on the hardware, you really have to search for it.
The majority say the Vision Pro is either the greatest bit of tech ever or a piece of garbage that reflects the trash future we currently reside in.
Thing is, I don’t actually think it’s the fault of any bootlicker and contrarian. The blame has to fall at the door of algorithmisation.
If something is controversial and gets more engagement, it’s boosted by algorithms. More people see it, creators lean into these angles, and we end spiralling further and further apart as a society.
That’s how we end up in these binary situations where discussion has deserted us. Well, on social media, at least. Unfortunately though, that’s where we spend most of our time.
But… where does that leave us overall? And what can be done?
Firstly, I’d like to say, “Daddy, chill” to everyone involved.
Regarding the Vision Pro itself, it’s hard not to see it like the iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch: a flawed first generation product that gets slowly and consistently better before it becomes ordinary. It’s not that deep. It’s an inventive piece of tech that is also kinda silly.
Saying that, I do think it’s the marker of a new era.
While algorithmisation divides us into camps, spatial computing and AI will be the true era of personal machines. Instead of being in a binary culture, we’ll be in a separate one, living a life that pushes community to the side and focuses on solely our own experience.
We’ll see what we want to see and little more than that. A true echo chamber where everyone is the main character.
Which is a shame because the Vision Pro does look kinda cool.