I read an article clearly written by a Millennial earlier today, which taught me a new internet acronym, IRL. The internet is as bad as the military in its overuse of acronyms, but unlike the military, apparently everyone under the age of thirty-five not only knows the meanings of these, but uses them online, and sadly occasionally IN REAL LIFE.
That’s what IRL apparently stands for — In Real Life. Why would we need such an acronym, you ask? Because one-and-a-half entire generations have now been so well-trained by the internet’s telling them that they should focus so much of their time and attention at or through the internet that there needed to be a saying to differentiate real life from web life.
This makes me so sad. The kids are such slaves to their cell phones that they have to run everything through their masters before even considering meeting another human being face-to-face. The slow erosion of their social skills is evident in their abject fear of everything (because the internet told them to be afraid of things that don’t really exist IRL), in their use of internet acronyms IRL (LOL, she needs to STFU ASAP) and in their inability to focus on any one thing for more than six seconds (I suppose we should blame Japanese fast-action cartoons a little here, too, but mainly the internet).
I suppose I should celebrate the fact that they still consider offline to be the REAL life, though the day that one flips is rapidly approaching. I’d ask you to tell me the day when it does change, but I’ll be too busy living IRL to notice.