9×9

*The Ray-Ban Meta Glasses were mentioned as Meta Glasses in this article. But I think Ray-Ban Meta is the official name.*

Meta Glasses, Clicks phone case. Technologies are breaking down.

I got a Clicks phone case about a month ago. I saw it when I was searching for a handy keyboard for my IPhone14 pro max. And I searched for the keyboard because, you know, sometimes you just suddenly start dreaming about being a writer and typing down all your ideas with your phone, whenever you get a spark. I was having one of those dreams that day right before bed. So I searched, and the Clicks phone case popped up. It was exactly the type of thing I wanted. I was a blackberry user many years ago and I loved its physical keyboard. So I ordered a phone case.

Meta glasses came to me unexpectedly. It was a birthday present from my husband. He told me about it two weeks before my birthday, saying that it’s the kind of present that I had to know beforehand — because I need to go in there and dial in my prescription for the order. I sensed that’s just an excuse, to see if I like the idea or not, but I didn’t expose him. I said I might not need it. He convinced me saying that I can take photos with it when I go to South Pole. Okay, I may give it a try. I mean, if I insist to have him giving me something else, it could be worse than this one. So we went to a store and got me a pair of Meta glasses.

I was quite happy with both purchases. The phone case, to be honest, is a bit too large. The pro max is big by itself, while the case added significant length to it so it looks really ridiculous. It was like the predicted IPhone20 few years ago. And because it was so long and heavy with the case on, it felt very unbalanced in hand. But, it was just fun clicking those keys. It made me feel good every time people asked me “Does this keyboard really work?”, and I proudly demonstrated. 

The Meta Glasses is an even-more-cyber toy. I loved my friends’ shocked reactions to my poker face photo taking with the glasses. And the headphone functions were just surprisingly satisfying. I’m not so obsessive about sound quality, and I kinda liked its blending in music seamlessly to the environment. It felt secure and joyful. 

There was one unpleasant encounter. It was my first week wearing the Meta Glasses, and I was sitting in a seminar. It’s just a normal glasses when you were not using its integrated electronics, so during the talk, I hadn’t even thought about it. At the end of the seminar, when we were all getting up and walking out, the guy sitting behind suddenly started talking to me.

“Does it really help?” he asked while pointing to my phone case.

I at first thought he was just like all the others wondering if the case is functional or just for decoration. So I kindly demonstrated. 

“Oh yeah okay,” he said with little enthusiasm, “so you think it really helps?”

I sensed the awkwardness but didn’t fully recognize it at the moment. So I carried on with my usual scripted.

“Yeah I liked it. I mean, I used blackberry many years ago and I really missed it…”

“Right, right.” He kinda interrupted me, “but I mean, it makes your phone so large and bulky. I was just wondering if it is really…” He gave me a kind-but-sorry expression, and did some ambiguous gestures with unambiguous meaning, “You know… Just wondering if you really like it.”

“Well, I haven’t got it for long enough, but I like it so far. It’s just fun to click on these buttons.” I finally got what he meant to convey, but I wasn’t socially skilled enough to properly show my anger, which I regretted after I left the scene.

But the man just wouldn’t stop annoying me. “You really have special technology taste. I mean, your phone case, and your glasses!” A professor stopped by to ask me about the Thursday colloquium, which finally drove the man away. Only then I got the right sentence in my mind.

“What a jerk!” I yelled inside my head.

Anyway, things were generally good except that one unpleasant conversation, until the past weekend. My husband and I went to a resort hotel for a birthday celebrating weekend trip. I thought it would be cool to wear my high-tech glasses to the jacuzzi and take some steamy pool pictures of my guy. Then the happy spirit led us from the comfy tub to the empty swimming pool, which for sure has one side much deeper than the other one, and I for sure didn’t notice it. I tried to stand up after swimming from the shallower side to the deeper side, and had the whole me, including the high-tech glasses, immersed in water. The glasses died immediately and is still dead after a few days of drying. 

Like that’s not enough, the Clicks case also became flaky overtime. It randomly became unstable, and I had to take it on and off a few times a day to reactive it. 

Today, without my glasses headphone, I had to borrow my husband’s wired headphones for podcast. Then, I found out that the lightening port on the phone case doesn’t really work for plugging in headphones. I don’t know the exact reason. It’s either because the case is too thick, or it just doesn’t have the function. Anyway, it wasn’t working, and I had to take the case off. Now I don’t have my meta glasses, and the phone is naked again. I think I will just be like this for some time.