Why do people call offline real life?

[Odoylerules360]

'Cause it's fun to call it that, and 'meatspace' hasn't caught on very much yet.

 

[Treblaine]

I've truly never understood why people refer to offline as real life, and imply that online is not real. Hallucinations aren't real. Dreams aren't real. But activities I engage in online or virtually, how are they any less real than the physical world?

Cobb: "Yes, this isn't real, we're all just in a dream. I'm not real, I'm a figment of your imagination"
Fischer: "Really?"
Cobb: "no"
...
Fischer: "Oh, I get you now. That explains all the lag I've been having lost a thumb war to that hot chick earlier"
Cobb: "Was that a hot chick? Look again!"

Fischer: "AHH! I wanna wake up"

Arnie: "NAUUUGHHUUUGGGH! Ahf had such an incredible dream. Yoo wear dere, and you wear dere and yoo... wait, hoo arrh yoo!"
Doctor: "don't worry now, the treatment didn't hold, lets go for a 2nd round"

"NNNAUAUAUUAU AAAUUGH GRRAAAHHH COHAGEN GUAHHH HAUA GNAU MYSHIRTCHANGEDCOLOUR GHUAUUUGH NAUAGH!"

Conclusion: In whatever reality you happen to be in, appreciate it while you are there.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Because none of us are really real. We're all a product of the Matrix. Technically I'm not supposed to tell you under penalty of getting de-rezzed, but I couldn't let you go any longer without fi

 

[Shifty Tortoise]

Hallucinations aren't real. Dreams aren't real.

I argue that the same applies to games, all three a figments of somebody's imagination after all.

 

[Kevonovitch]

IRL: the ultimate MMO! the gfx never update, never needs more cpu power or ram, the power only goes out for energy saving mode, if you act now you can buy the expantion to IRL: the ultimate MMO! your house, the expantion pack, outside!, and in your city!, only for $9999.99 each. but wait! there's more! act now, and you'll recive a drinking budyy for free! aswell as a hooker with Zero venarial diseases! only available in IRL: the ultimate MMO!

 

[IamSofaKingRaw]

Am I real?

Haha, you finally asked the question we were looking for Neo. Now which path will you choose?
Red Pie...or Blue Cake?

Spoiler: ...

THE CAKE IS A LIE

 

[Twilight_guy]

What you do in a virtual reality setting has no bearing on your physical being and thus is not "real" if we use the materialist definition. Thus offline would be "real life" and online would be "not real life." If you want to argue for a non-materialist definition of "real" then you might be right. But by the same token when we use a non-materialist definition we can easily extend "real" to mean everything and also retract 'real' to mean nothing making a materialist definition much more effective as an actually indicator of something with clear meaning.

 

[LightningBanks]

I think off online as another dimension... a dimension that we will hopefully be able to move in and out of at will soon, rather than viewing from a small box called a monitor

 

[Shinrae]

Basically i think i boils down to the fact that the online world has few significant consequences if any, thus it's not like real life where there are consequences to nearly all that we do

Then if we can only get everyone to convert to the religion of neckbearding late night internet lovefests, we can watch as the whole world chills out and stops blowing stuff up and giving a damn about anything... Or, you know. Start blowing stuff up for the lulz, I'm not really sure where I was going with this tbh.

I really don't like this topic, get enough grief about there being such a huge difference from my parents as it is, I dont need that sort of thing here as well.

 

[Death God]

Because for all you know, you could just be talking to some computer AI. Technology really "zones" you out some times.

 

[Homplok]

The fact that this question had to be asked shows a significant shift towards the culturally fucked. I don't know the answer to your question, but only because I've never had to ponder it. You should just know.

 

[Hollock]

because it's people you actually phisically see. Some people don't realize that what they say online sticks. {and might bite you in the ass}

 

[C95J]

It's separate from your "real life" though, it's your "virtual life". You can do things in your virtual life which you cannot do in real life.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Gamewise: Because if all people thought like that, we'd be the worst people to have ever lived considering the insurmountable number of lives that we have ended.
Otherwise: If stuff we do online is considered real, then we are robbed of the actual experience. Say your doing it all you want, but what your *really* doing, is simply moving a mouse and typing on a keyboard.

 

[RMcD94]

Well this is real, but it exists in an artificial environment. Plus some people don't act like their usual self when online. So commonly they'll say somthing not really in their personality, then they'll say something along the lines of "jk, but in real life..."

Well that's my theory here anyway. But in real life I actually think...

Ah, but that's exactly why I don't think people act like themselves offline.

The best example I have is homophobia.

Say I'm gay, I can't tell people this offline, I could be bullied, physically or verbally. Physical consequences stop me being who I want to be, peer pressure causes a change in who you are.

Online, it is definitely easier to lie, but I believe it's less likely.

Why would you tell someone you're straight online if you were gay? There's no disadvantage to telling the truth, there's a place for everyone. Basically, no peer pressure.

Also, wow, didn't expect three pages, I've only read page one, I'll catch up later.

Edit: A number of people are focusing a lot on games. I have to say that I mainly was thinking on the social aspect of virtual areas. However, most arguments are if you die in a game you don't die in real life, therefore it's not real. There are many cases of people dying from dreams and hallucinations, you aren't suggesting they are real now?

Is this thread not real purely because it's virtual? Is the conversation we have not real because it's takes place on an internet forum? To say it is not devalues the time we spend here, and the things that take place.

 

[Samwise137]

because that's where you, I don't know, Like, LIVE. In a game you just take over the control of a character, living THEIR lives. But then again, there's no saying whether this actually IS real life...

Yah, I mean what if our world is a speck of dust under some giant's thumbnail and HIS world is a flake of dandruff on some other giant's head. Reality is all what you make of it.

 

[John the Gamer]

because that's where you, I don't know, Like, LIVE. In a game you just take over the control of a character, living THEIR lives. But then again, there's no saying whether this actually IS real life...

Yah, I mean what if our world is a speck of dust under some giant's thumbnail and HIS world is a flake of dandruff on some other giant's head. Reality is all what you make of it.

I'm totally thinking about the movie 'Horton hears a who'(?) right now. And possibly of men in black...2 or 3 I think.

 

[Continuity]

Simple. Online activity is often used to engage in fantasy (world or persona), to one degree or other. So it only makes sense to refer to your life outside that fantasy as "real life", you need some point of reference to anchor yourself in.