{"id":13446,"date":"2014-04-21T12:18:03","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T12:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/in-real-life\/"},"modified":"2017-01-27T15:54:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T15:54:10","slug":"in-real-life","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/30108\/in-real-life-irl","title":{"rendered":"In Real Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_in_real_life_mean\">What Does In Real Life Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In real life (IRL) is a tech slang term used to talk about the real world, in contrast to the world of the Internet, or some other virtual or cyber world.\n<\/p>\n<p>In real life (IRL) is also known as the meatspace.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_in_real_life\">Techopedia Explains In Real Life<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Internet users often use the term or the acronym IRL on message boards and in other venues to talk about things that that happen in the physical world. Tech professionals and others also use the term &#8220;real time&#8221; to talk about IT systems that update data according to timelines in the physical world, or in other words, in real life.\n<\/p>\n<p>Although it may seem like a simple slang term, &#8220;in real life&#8221; could take on added meaning in the future, where distinctions between physical and cyber worlds continue to blur and blend together. This kind of language is used to try to describe changes in the ways that people interact with technology, as individuals and as societies. These interactions change as new interfaces develop and become popular as consumer purchases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does In Real Life Mean? In real life (IRL) is a tech slang term used to talk about the real world, in contrast to the world of the Internet, or some other virtual or cyber world. In real life (IRL) is also known as the meatspace. Techopedia Explains In Real Life Internet users often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[238,245],"class_list":["post-13446","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-buzzwords-and-jargon","definitioncat-internet"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is In Real Life (IRL)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of In Real Life and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Real Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of In Real Life and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/30108\/in-real-life-irl\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-27T15:54:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/30108\/in-real-life-irl#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/30108\/in-real-life-irl\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"In Real Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-21T12:18:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-27T15:54:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/30108\/in-real-life-irl\"},\"wordCount\":185,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/30108\/in-real-life-irl#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/30108\/in-real-life-irl\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/30108\/in-real-life-irl\",\"name\":\"What is In Real Life (IRL)? 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