A few months ago Peter Sunde, one of the founders of The Pirate Bay, was asked, by a prosecutor no less, when he first met someone IRL (In Real Life). The answer was both funny and insightful. Sunde said:
“We don’t like the expression ‘In Real Life‘.
We say ‘Away From keyboard‘.
We think that the internet is real.
Earlier today I spoke to a friend who proposed that he would print a story I wrote on this blog and show it to the other editors at a local newspaper. I asked him why he couldn’t just email it and he replied:
“I never pitch over email.
Wanna kill an idea? Email it.”
Peter Sunde certainly had a point when he said the Internet was real. But my friend also has a point.
You’d be surprised to find out how many people still prefer to print their emails and read from paper.
I guess we are stuck in a transitional period where digital is getting more real every day but analog still seems to get more credit.
How much longer is it going to take before digital becomes more real than analog?
I don’t see the added value of (I assume) Pfauth’s statement – surely, a preference for reading on paper has very little to do with the point this article is making? I prefer to read on paper – that doesn’t mean I think the Internet is ‘fake’ (whatever that may mean).
@Dario Gieselaar but would you be more likely to accept (or even look at) a proposal on paper than a proposal sent via email?
Wait, people print out their emails? C’mon…
Also see: http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/03/04/tnw-aka-the-next-workplace-1-year-1-call-0-problems/
@Courtney Boyd Myers Not too long ago me and patrick de laive visited a CEO of a very big company. He offered to introduce us to another CEO and we gladly accepted. He said “great, I will send him an email right away!” and then he picked up the phone, invited his assistant in and dictated an email to her, which she wrote down, with a pencil, on a piece of paper.
We really thought he was putting up a show for us but it was all serious…
@Boris patrick de laive sounds like the ceo has a case of the baby boomers…
i think once we can actually have e-paper and a system that allows us to instantly send any data from our devices (be it a pc or phone or tablet) directly to the paper for 1 to 1 viewing, then we’ll finally move away from the paper.
also, i think AR could legitimize the web as ‘real life’ too. once you start seeing digital references to physical items in realtime, the barreir between the two start disappearing and the digital is part of the real world.
honestly, i’d love to see glasses makers/designers start looking at AR systems for our glasses. i figure if we have to wear them to see why not augment our experience and give us an advantage over the non glasses wearing people. ;) four eyes=superior experience and literally four eyes :)
Wait, you mean it’s not real? What has this all been for then?!
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http://www.techviva.com
You know…even I would prefer to di it AFK. I mean..come on…stage presence is everything. One can empower you with their voice, their movements..Its way much better than email. Unless ofcourse the interview or anyother matter is long-distance, which a well formatted email should suffice but if anybody still wants to go a bit over board the you’ve got youtube, sliderocket and stuff.AFK pitching will never get old.Fingers crossed!
Anybody remember the fat people on the movie Wall-e? Is that the future we’re talking about? Real life is AWK!!
I tend to think digitally. I realized this when I couldn’t find my bank information online. I called to ask them how to get my info. They said, check your paper statements that you get. I hadn’t even considered looking at the paper statements!
Boris, thanks for the article. I always feel that digital stuff lacks size in the eyes of other, less digitally minded people. As I work in an agency that does integrated campaigns, I notice that TV and print almost always seems bigger than any pure digital idea. It’s weird, still :)