BEIJING, CHINA - MARCH 27: A girl wearing virtual reality (VR) headset watches movie at the ... [+]
Over the past two years, I have seen people take “social media breaks” due to the stress caused by online engagement. One woman I know shared with me her reasons for taking a break stating, “The discussions on FB seem to get us nowhere, but divided up in tinier and tinier affinity groups and I think the risk of confusing the virtual with the real is unavoidable.” Others have confessed being caught up in the mire and online mud-slinging which adds to their stress and fundamentally decreases their quality of life. In fact, everyone with whom I have spoken who has been opting out of social media has confirmed an outright need to seek offline real-life experiences which are current being reflected by social trends towards the IRL or in real life.
With the increase of escape rooms, immersive theatre and dinner parties, even those who use the internet for social networking beyond personal communications are finding themselves gravitating towards real-world experiences that remove them from the hermetic world of online socializing. One such phenomenon is Cards of Candour, an adult card game that stimulates real conversations and experience through matter-of-fact questions that most of us have faced at one point or another, beginning with “Have you ever…?” Cofounder, Fletcher Miles, tells me about his company’s ethos: “In a world replete with thumbs ups and likes we’ve found that people are increasingly craving deeper, more authentic conversations. We want to help people skip past the weather chat to the part of a night where the conversation turns to the hilariously weird things people have thought and done.”
This trend in people moving towards in real-life social experiences has expanded beyond the strictly social to now include real-life experiences in the professional sector. For instance, My Success Team experiences provides online coaching services and helps people improve their businesses in order to lead them to real-life success. While much of the coaching takes place online through Skype or Zoom, the practice of these sessions takes place entirely within the real world where clients are encouraged to leave virtuality in order to engage their skills through live conversations and meetings. Many companies that have set up an online framework for business have in recent years shifted towards a business model that aims toward real-world interactions.
Many companies are picking up on this trend where even online advertising is more and more depending upon real-world input and interactions. Webree Ventures CEO, Yash Chaudhary, tells about how his company has worked to merge real life changes with affiliate marketing noting how addressing real-life culture is key to success with online businesses: “It’s not that marketing exists in a bubble—it doesn’t. We address advertising through what real people are doing in real time. We work on current cultural dynamics while using digital technology to expand how branding operates.”
While companies are exploring the benefits of adapting to offline strategies, some individuals have even considered a tech Shabbat whereby living a mentally balanced life depends upon going one day a week without any technology whatsoever. More surprising is that competitive gaming has been moving offline as a recent trend of professional gaming has crossed back to the real with tickets for gaming events held in stadiums ranging from $50 to $300. The real life interaction of gamers and fans has begun to revert to “old world” models of spectatorship and competition. Add to this the fact that online designers such as Bonobos and Astley Clarke are beginning to move their lines offline entirely as more and more companies are seeing advantages in moving offline or taking online lessons offline. We are witnessing a shift in the online business model where the new priority for many companies is the need to understand the local communities driving many businesses, even to the end of opening up a local retail shop.
As more and more internet users are foregoing life lived online and moving from social media to IRL social networks and experiences, many businesses are following suit in placing emphasis on real life lessons and physical stores. In fact, the real internet revolution not might be how the internet has put everyone online, but rather how humans have been able to assess the “lessons learned” both in our personal and professional lives in order to understand where online life is best left for the real world.
