What is IRL? This is a direct borrowing of an abbreviation from Internet slang. In English there is an expression in real life, abbreviated IRL, literally translated as "in real life", as opposed to life on the Internet. This expression appeared in our digital age, when the Internet captured reality and we had to divide life into real and online.
If IRL is for real life, then what is for virtual?
Now we know what IRL is and how to use these letters to represent real life. And to indicate the virtual location of the page, on the contrary, the abbreviation URL is used, which stands for Uniform Resourse Locator. But due to their external similarity, it seems that IRL and URL are decrypted similarly.
In order to somehow distinguish between life and their behavior online and offline, people began to use the abbreviation IRL. What does this expression mean for virtual reality? That our behavior may differ. On the Internet, we follow the news, everywhere we express our opinion, point people to mistakes, discloseinformation about yourself to the whole world, discuss personal problems on the forums and post photos for everyone to see. In general, we behave much more openly than in real life, where we are afraid to pick up the phone or open the door to a stranger. Perhaps some well-known bloggers who make money on their image on the Internet or just your friends have created an image for themselves specifically for their pages on the Internet. Maybe that arrogant YouTuber who rolls his eyes at people in casual clothes, doesn't like kids, and spews sarcastic remarks about everything on the Internet is actually a kind-hearted man who adores children. And vice versa.
How to use the expression "IRL"?
This is internet slang, there are no rules. If you want to write in capital letters - write, if you want small letters - no one will object either. For example, you can say: "I'm on the Internet and I'm irl - these are two different people." Or: "It's all Photoshop and filters, everything is bad in irl." Or: "Metirl, turned out to be a very nice person. Didn't expect."
