IRL [In Real Life]: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives [I.R.L.]

Chris Stedman

ISBN 10: 1506463517 / ISBN 13: 9781506463513

Published by Broadleaf, 2020

About this Item

xiii, [1], 331 p. Published at $24.99 [otob: 32].

Seller Inventory # 205591

Bibliographic Details

• Title: IRL [In Real Life]: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives [I.R.L.]
• Publisher: Broadleaf
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1506463517
• ISBN 13: 9781506463513
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

What Does "IRL (In Real Life)" Really Mean in Today's Digital Age?

It's easy and reflexive to view our online presence as fake, to see the internet as a space we enter when we aren't living our real, offline lives. Yet so much of who we are and what we do now happens online, making it hard to know which parts of our lives are real.

IRL, Chris Stedman's personal and searing exploration of authenticity in the digital age, shines a light on how age-old notions of realness--who we are and where we fit in the world--can be freshly understood in our increasingly online lives. Stedman offers a different way of seeing the supposed split between our online and offline selves: the internet and social media are new tools for understanding and expressing ourselves, and the not-always-graceful ways we use these tools can reveal new insights into far older human behaviors and desires.

IRL invites readers to consider how we use the internet to fulfill the essential human need to feel real--a need many of us once met in institutions, but now seek to do on our own, online--as well as the ways we edit or curate ourselves for digital audiences. The digital search for meaning and belonging presents challenges, Stedman suggests, but also myriad opportunities to become more fully human. In the end, he makes a bold case for embracing realness in all of its uncertainty, online and off, even when it feels risky.

About the Author

Chris Stedman, an activist, community organizer, and writer, is the author of Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious. He has written for The Guardian, The Atlantic, Pitchfork, BuzzFeed, and VICE, and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and PBS. Formerly the founding executive director of the Yale Humanist Community, he also served as a humanist chaplain at Harvard University and is currently Adjunct Professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. To learn more about Chris, visit chrisstedmanwriter.com.