Categories: Articles

The Real World

If there’s one acronym I hate, it’s this one: IRL.

IRL stands for: In Real Life. People talk a ton about what they’re doing online versus what they’re doing in the real world. People often talk about meeting-up in the real world once they’ve connected in places like Twitter or Facebook.

Let me ask you this: when you’re on Twitter or Facebook or Blogging are you not in the real world?

When you’re online, are you fake? Is your online avatar simply that: a representation of who you would like to be instead of who you really are? As the great philosopher, Popeye, used to say: "I yam what I yam." People will look at me sideways when I say that online social networks are the real world. They don’t buy it. They think that you can’t create and nurture a "real" relationship online. Anything "real" has to take place in the "physical" world. This is not clear to me. It’s confusing, and it often confuses me when I think about it. I am typing this Blog post right now in the real world. I am using real world emotions. I am using real words. I don’t consider any of this virtual. I don’t consider any of this fake or inauthentic.

All of this exists in the real world.

Take a look around you. The chair you’re sitting on. The screen you’re staring at. Look at the four walls. Look at the clothes you’re wearing. Think about these words. Let them sink in. Does any of this not feel real to you? It feels very real to me.

The words we use create the world we live in.

If we say that everything online is not "the real world," we are – to some extent – diminishing it, dismissing it and making it seem less substantive than it is. Does this Blog post hold less value to you because it’s not on a page stapled to other pages with similar articles and ads? Don’t get me wrong, pressing the flesh and meeting in our protein forms is critical. This is not about removing the human factor and the amazing collaboration that happens when we meet in person, but when you’re online, you’re still in the real world. When you’re online there is still a human factor and real collaboration does happen when individuals are not in the same room.

This is the real world. This is real life.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.