| name | value |
| location | Dublin |
| description | Reflections on private and public life and Apple Vision Pro |
| date | 2024-02-08 |
Apple Vision Pro is out. Casey Neistat made his video on it. The last couple of days I was reflecting on this incredible pieced of technology. But it was more about changes in the society. Let's go back in time a bit.
I grew up in Ukraine in '90s. Back then we had our public lives and private lives. And they were completely different things. There were only few times when those worlds would overlap. First one - socially acceptable - was taking a nightly train to another city. People would find their cabin and would start changing into home closes for the night. Think pajamas and flip flops. In '90s that was unheard of. You never knew what people wear in their homes and the train was the only place where did you get a pick into their private lives and environments.
Second one - not socially acceptable - was taking a bath in a river, lake or a sea. Imagine: summer, beach. Everyone is swimming. And then one weird person would bring shampoo from home and would start washing their hair amongst people who just there for fun. Usually one single person did that and that always looked weird. It felt that they broke a social contract - taking a bath in private.
Now, let's speed up to 2020. Spring of 2020. Everything changed with COVID. People are working from home now. They are in their pajamas and crocks (see how Crocks grew in popularity in the past 10 years) - which are an equivalent of flip flops of my childhood on the trains.
Everyone is on Zoom. Which essentially meant that private life and environment (home with all corresponding attributes - attire, pets, children) was exposed to the public using camera.
At this time you would also notice how different online videos became. In 2007 Justin Kan made Justin.tv - he recorded himself 24-7. In 2020 many people started doing similar things. People would record TikToks from anywhere - from the bedroom, bathroom - etc. Private lives became public for everyone to see.
And now let's think about flying experience. When you watch old films you see that everyone is dressed up on the plane. It's not the case anymore. Planes and airports became exactly like trains from my childhood - so many people are wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts. It's all about comfort now.
In 2013 Google release Google Glass. It was a similar concept to Apple Vision Pro, but time was different. 10 years ago private life was still private. In 2024 it's not. So it's all changed in the past 10 years. With an acceleration.
Let's go back to Casey's video. In it he wears Apple Vision Pro outdoors in New York City. Most notably on the subways and in the Times Square. If I want to define what public place is there are not many better examples than New York Subway and the Times Square. Those were stereotypical public places where people would do public things.
But not anymore. In the video Casey brought his private experience to the subway and the most famous square in the world. He just laid down in the Times Square completely unphazed and watched things he would normally watch at home.
So that is a new state of the things. It's not bad or good. It is what it is. In the past 30 years life changed a lot. But last 4-5 years this change really accelerated:
- Fashion is different: crocks, sweatshirts, hoodies and sweatpants.
- Our connection to work is different: we can reply to emails during our "private" time now.
- We post images and videos of what we do with our iPhones and Vision Pros while sitting on the toilet.
- What we share online is different. It became popular to share online personal struggles with mental health or relationships. People would "announce" now that they have a depression or anxiety or public attacks.
Enjoy the ride.