I first heard the term Glowface at a party in my hometown suburb of Gymea, in the South of Sydney. It was the middle of winter, which means the temperature is about 10-15°C outside. When it comes to the weather, Sydneysiders get incredibly dramatic. When the temperature goes over 30°C it’s as if we all now live in the Sahara and it’s simply too hot to even exist. When it the temperature gets into the single digits, the whole city starts to freak out as if it’s snowing – gloves, beanies, scarfs, and even thermal undergarments get pulled out of the closet. So to overcome the freezing cold my friends had started a fire and a few of us sat around it. It was one of those gatherings where you know a few people but don't really connect with anyone particularly, the kind of event where the conversation typically stays very high level. I found myself listening in on others' conversations because I tend to get to the point at those events where finding out what someone does for work and having them not return the question becomes a somewhat tiresome process.
As I was deciding between which conversation I should try to engage with next, I overheard one of my friends say "you're being a bit of a Glowface there" to another person around the fire. I hadn't heard the term, so I inquired further. He described how he often goes camping and of course when you go camping, you start a fire. He talked me through the scene, making me picture a dark winter's night with not a cloud in the sky, the stars as bright as they can be, and all the light you have is from the fire itself. That's until someone pulls out their phone and starts to Glowface. When the only light that is available is emanating from a fire, the dull blue light of a phone stands out all the more. That dull blue light makes it look as if someone's face is glowing as they reply to a text or scroll through Instagram. The term is still defined in Urban Dictionary as someone who is addicted to their phone. The definition though is a little antiquated, given it still refers to a blackberry as the device someone is addicted to, rather than an iPhone. Given the definition is a little bit out of date, let’s try to update it a bit as well. A Glowface for our purposes is anyone who is addicted to a digital screen of any kind. Anyone whose face is illuminated by the dull glow of the light from their mobile phone, computer, TV or even their smart watch. Let's be honest then, if that's the definition of a Glowface, we can all be branded one.
There is a cost when we allow the dull glow of a screen to imprint itself onto our face. It’s a cost we don’t even realize we are paying at times. Often we pay for it by losing our God given talents. Sometimes it’s our ability to think that goes. At other times it’s those who lead us who will impact us most by also being a Glowface. We might become more dissatisfied with our careers as so-called productivity software invades every moment of our working lives. We might pay for it by having a generation of young people educated by screens and the internet and never allowed to transfer information into knowledge. It might cost us our memory as we neglect it and externalize it for the approval of others. It might cost us the time we spend unwinding and relaxing as the pace of technology teaches us to fear boredom and move faster than our hobbies typically move. Ultimately, it might even cost us our own humanity.
But know that being branded a Glowface will cost you something.