What is an IRL? This is a direct borrowing of the abbreviation from Internet slang. In English there is an expression in real life, abbreviated IRL, literally translated as "in real life", in contrast 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 virtual?
Now we know what the IRL is and what these letters need to be used to denote 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 the IRL and URL are decrypted similarly.
In order to somehow distinguish between life and their behavior online and offline, people began to use the reduction of IRL. What does this expression mean for virtual reality? That our behavior may be different. On the Internet, we follow the news, everywhere we express our opinions, point out mistakes to people, disclose information about ourselves to the whole world, discuss personal problems in forums and post photos to everyone. 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 created an image specifically for their pages on the Internet. Maybe the very arrogant youtuber who rolls his eyes at the sight of people in ordinary clothes does not like children and spills sarcastic remarks on any occasion on the Internet, in fact, he is a kind person who loves 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 in small letters - no one will object either. For example, you can say: "I'm on the Internet and I'm Earl - these are two different people." Or: "This is all Photoshop and filters, everything is bad there." Or: "I met *** Earl, it turned out to be a very nice person. I did not expect it."