Notice how those spunky young digital natives – when referring to things that existed in non-digital form before the rise of the internet – now refer to them as the ‘offline’ versions?
You know; old fashioned, physical things made out of paper and wood and stone and bits of string, like books and shops and conversations.
I was in an e-commerce briefing the other day, and the young bloke was talking about ‘online stores’. But when he talked about the original brick and cement and carpeted versions, he referred to them as ‘offline stores’. Not ‘shops’ but ‘offline stores’. I love it! What a brilliant evolution of the language.
In a lot of areas, the rise of the virtual seems to be relegating the original entities to the basket marked ‘terminally uncool’.
It’s the online stores, e-books, online advertising, online learning, and online dating that are de rigueur. If you’re offline, you’re SO off the A-list.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my iPhone like a brother. I get all gooey over a seamless multi-platform digital end-user experience, especially when it’s one I’ve given birth to.
But I also feel it’s important that our non-digital heritage isn’t lost forever. I even reckon that being able to digitally recreate some aspects of the ‘offline’ experience in an online environment makes for a better experience.
If I’d been feeling a bit cheekier during that seminar, I might’ve shared my decades of wisdom with the chap, and mentioned to him that the offline version of a blog used to be called ‘having a chat’.
That an offline e-book was once referred to as a ‘paperback’.
That using Wikipedia – but in its original offline form – was called ‘talkin’ bullshit’.
Asking your mate on the train what he or she is viewing on YouTube, was once expressed thus: “Oi, what’s on telly?”
Offline gaming was called ‘backyard cricket’.
Online dating, but performed offline, was called ‘chatting up’, and sometimes, ‘pulling a root’.
Offline education was called ‘let’s have a few beers at the Port Office’.
And iTunes offline was called ‘hitting play and record when Dire Straits came on FM104’.
It was a bloody good seminar though. Next time I’m out of milk, I’ll know to pop down to the offline store on the corner and maybe pick up an offline newspaper and an offline Paddle Pop while I’m there.
Andrew Bartlett is a Senior Writer at BCM
I’m with you on this one AB. Love the digital world but starting to resent the unavoidable nostalgia it generates. I’m not even 40 yet but already looking back fondly on a golden age that was only 15 years ago for crissake. Our parents generation got to be old and crusty before that happened to them. Their golden age had a shelf life – not so us.
You’re a classic AB… but it’s so true. I love everything that technology enables us to do but there’s still no replacement for actual human interaction. And as I write this on a blog I’m also checking my Twitter and reading the various feeds on my Google home page…