How Al glasses might save clubbing from phones — and help us party in the moment

When I was a teenager, having the latest iPhone felt like a kind of cultural currency.

- Allegra Handelsman

It was proof that you were ahead of the curve. But in the past few years something has shifted.Now, it feels like we've hit a cultural reversal, where being unreachable and vaguely analogue has become the new luxury. Rejecting modernity and embracing tradition (in this case tradition is a piece of tech from 2017) is aspirational. The hottest girls I know are wearing wired headphones again and bringing old iPhones with a more aesthetic blurred camera on nights out.

You can debate the reasoning: a rebellion against the algorithmic age, a response to Al fatigue, or just the endless churn of the trend cycles?

So, when Meta announced its collaboration with RayBan, slipping artificial intelligence into such a recognisable silhouette, I didn’t think it would stick — at least not among the people who proudly favour analogue. To me, the glasses initially felt like another Al gimmick, an accessory just for tech bros.