"in real life"

Rainbow said:

On a related note, does anyone get annoyed about the term "real life"? We all agree that internet friends and relationships are just as real, but I'm not sure what other term to use.

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I usually use "offline" or "online" instead these days, but as I talk to my offline friends online as well and have met some online friends offline, that's not great terms either. Perhaps friends are just friends c: And the activities themselves can be labeled as online or IRL!

Thoughts?

I think of things as "offline" and "online" as well most of the time, although I do use "offline" and "in real life" interchangably on occasion because I don't really think about it. "In real life I swear a lot more" sounds better then "Offline I swear a lot more" for example.

But no matter where I am, people are people, so I don't really differentiate between where I speak to them...I don't even have any "offline" friends anyway. The activities I would differentiate between because there are obviously some things I can or can't do between the two. But otherwise...eh. It's all real life, so it's a bit of a funny term to use really.

Well, in the past, I used to really keep secret the fact that I had any interest at all in stuff like pokemon, gaming, sci-fi or manga. As such, talking about these things on PC became an escape from the constraints of "real life". Nowadays, thankfully, my life is somewhat more harmonious ^^

"Real life" includes all the stuff you can't escape like you can with people you know online so online it's kind of like a fantasy world you can escape to or leave whenever you want.

I find that my internet friends and I share a difference relationship then the ones I have with people in my daily life offline, it just depends on the people, how long I've been knowing them, how much we connect, ect. Some things are easier to talk about with some more then others, but at the same time it's not because I'm inhibited in anyway.. But in terms of how I behave and what I share as far as my thoughts and interest, they're pretty much the same.... Idk if that makes much sense lol

I tend to abuse irl but I really should use offline/online as I see all my friends as legitimate and good friends ^^

I used to say IRL really often, but lately I've been thinking more in offline/online terms seeing that lately the internet has blended so much into people's lives. This isn't the Wild West anymore I guess, I see loads of people being more open about themselves online than they were like 6 years ago. I always saw friendships as friendships whether they are offline or online, but only recently has such an idea been more readily accepted by the majority of people, at least from what I've seen.
Though I might end up using the term IRL a couple of times out of sheer lazyness because it's a 3-letter acronym haha.

I only really use it in terms of where I've met the person. Like, I have people from work, school, PC, LJ, etc. But I think of everyone as my friend and I don't value one friendship higher than the other just because of where I met them. So, my online friends aren't just my friends online :)

colours said:

I'm entirely guilty of using "IRL" way too often.

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Same here...I spend a lot of my life online, and during my many years on the net, I've met some very good, lovely people. I...can't really find much of the same in the real world, so I use "irl" to border the two "worlds", if I can use that to describe it.

colours said:

I guess in my mind, even though yes, online friends are basically also real people behind computer monitors, it's still kind of hard to get rid of that "distinction", so to speak. To me, online is a different world than in real life, even if the friends that I've made online are equally as valuable (honestly even better) than my IRL ones, and treasure them just as much.

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Same I really can't compare online to offline, online is just so much better!