Inevitably, when asked to contemplate the future of television, one can't help but briefly retreat into the past. What did television mean to us when we were kids, teens and young adults? What did it mean to our parents, our children and others in our lives? Anyone old enough to remember the pre-cable world no doubt feels a rush of nostalgia thinking about all of the simple good things television used to be.

As one of the few people on Madison Avenue who seem to have a solid foot in it, what can you tell us about the future of media? Four big trends to the way that media gets planned, bought and measured.

"What do I want?" Sometimes it's an incredibly hard question to answer. Whether deciding where to get dinner, what smartphone to buy, or even which route to take to work, these questions add up fast.

Well, this is the question most of us have in our minds as we get exposed to this sensational news - "Google Patents 'Pay-Per-Gaze' Gaze Tracking System." By the time you get active trying to figure out what the revolutionary technology from the Google Glass creator is all about, you indeed might have found your pupils dilated by now. So what actually is this 'gaze tracking patent' all about?

When looking to the future of media, there's always a great deal happening to move the needle, and yet, in the short term, things really don't feel like they've changed much. It's a progress treadmill of sorts. Something like the shift from using DVRs to using Netflix is a massive leap behind the scenes, but the consumer experience seems elatively unchanged.

The nice real-estate lady made it the centerpiece of her pitch. Having been notified that my wife and I would likely buy whatever house had the most bitchin' kitchen, she led us around the otherwise unexceptional colonial in suburban Jer-Z in an elliptical manner. First we toured the basement, then we trod up two flights of stairs to see the bedrooms. Only then did the agent swing back downstairs to the main living space. It was clear that she'd planned some grand reveal.

One sunny Friday afternoon last March, I received a tweet. Though it was simple in form and short in message, it created an immediate shift in how I would experience the world going forward. The tweet was from Google's Project Glass team and informed me that I was invited to join the beta tester program as a Glass Explorer. This immediately united me with the now more than 8,000 other Google Glass Explorers who are connected through a private community on Google+ where we share our collective adventures, experiences and thoughts about Glass at #throughglass.