A recent post by Alexandra Samuel on The Conversation, 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life, contends that IRL is a lie and sign that we are in denial about reality (and life) in the 21st century. While I agree with many of the points Samuel made, it got me thinking about people who, pardon the term, IRL are polar opposite to who you meet when the relationship moves offline.
We’ve all been there. Hit it off on Twitter and decided to meet for coffee. Been twit-matched by another tweep because we seem like a perfect virtual match, but sat in an awkward silence face-to-face. Wondered if we had the right Twitter handle show up to make our IRL acquaintance. On the flip side, we’ve all gotten what we thought we were getting when taking a relationship from virtual to face-to-face terms. (Although, I’m sure one could contend that Skype gives us a virtual face-to-face relationship, but, alas, I digress.) The question is: how and why does it happen? Continue reading →
Some people thrive on face-to-face interaction. Grabbing coffee, lunch, drinks with anybody and everybody. Others prefer to email and text. Many congregate on Facebook and Twitter. There’s no question that there are plenty of people embracing each of these mediums to establish relationships. But where do you build your relationships? Transition from acquaintances to strategic partners or friends?
I recently read The 5 Keys to Building Relationships on the Web, which indicated that entertaining, exciting and engaging with people was key to building web-based relationships. My immediate response was that these rules were equally relevant to IRL interactions. If we are using the same tactics for creating relationships – informing, entertaining, building trust – whether it is through web-based communications or real life interactions, does it matter where you start the relationship? Does its point of origin directly correlate with the relationships value and longevity? Continue reading →
…..a chance to start the day off right.