It’s All Real Life

Posted on July 9th, 2009 by tim bursch. Filed under connections, tech.

There was a discussion this week about online vs. offline relationships over at Liz’s blog. I could not join in, but here is what I would have brought to the table.

It’s all real.

Facebook friend= real.

Linkedin connection= real person.

Twitter followers= again, real people.

All online relationships are real. Yes, you might have a difference level of intimacy with people offline.
Do we need to distinguish between online and offline friends? If I meet you on Twitter are you less real? No.
Let’s just work on relationships.

What do you think? Is it necessary to say IRL (in real life)?

Image credit: quinet

Chris (Efficient Guide)

Love this post. Reflects a still-growing awareness among Social Media users, marketers and developers. I love it because this says it out loud. Definitely a white elephant topic. Consider the numerous stories of teens who share compromising pictures of themselves, workers who lose their jobs because of what they post on Facebook or Twitter, etc. Also according to NYT, it's affecting and becoming an undeniable part of our daily lives (see http://tinyurl.com/lz2s8g).