What exactly does "in the real world..." mean?

[Maricel Evasco]

What is "real" in the expression: "In the real world... in real life..."

 

I am doing an online master program (that is taking way too much of my time especially since I can't post here as often or even have a social life). My professor asked us this question: Do we need to be mindful of how we use the term "in the real world..." in our classrooms (or even at home with our children.)

 

What exactly is "in the real world...?"

 

 

 

[Merry]

In the real world, IMO, life is an IQ test. It has it's own consequences that no one else can manipulate for you. Someone can step in and shield you from a percentage of your own mistakes. But I see the "real world" as a giant chess board , a commando's playground and a place where it takes a certain amount of time and trial and error to figure things out. Sometimes , I don't see my own country as the "real world". Definitely not where my mom used to live in Kennebunk, Maine. The economy is extremely tourist driven. It has a la-la land aspect to it.  In the real world , life is not the way it should be and it is often, while the miracles are there if you look, unfair.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

I would say "yes" to the professor"s question. That is because of my answer to your question.

The phrase "In the Real World" has no universal meaning. this is because it refers to how the person saying it sees the world. Or thinks they see it.

Therefor when I say it to you, what I am referring too may have absolutely no relationship  to what you think I am refering. On the other hand, it may.  This is why I have never heard anyone disagree with a statement inferring that something would or wouldn't be the same in "The Real World".  

 

[Bob Stepp]

I'm not sure if I understood what you just said, but it sounded good.....here in 'The Real World."

[CWO3ROBBIE]

YEA!!! Quinn is back!!

[Merry]

I know, isn't it wonderful??

[Stir Young]

Well, Alan Jackson once had a song out called "Here in the Real World", but I'm not gonna bother posting it.  I think most of you would take me at my word, as to the veracity of my assertion.

[TeeBubbaDee]

B A F, I think we have a winner!

[Snagg]

"In The Real World" means, "Here Outside Of Everybody's Delusions, Assumptions and Fantasies".

[Jaylee53]

..or inside...if the case might be.

[funesthememorious]

I'd tell my perfessor that I would most likely get bogged down in a philosophical quagmire trying to define 'in the real world'...and suggest that he let me take an alternative angle and interpret what comprises a real world.

Something real has a quantifiable identity, discrete states, and known observable behavior. Thus gods, angels, pixie dust, spirits, thinking republicans, miracles, abominable snowmen, ghosts, bigfoot, unicorns, elves, flying reindeer, Lady Gaga, creation theory, man in the moon, cow jumping over the moon, Mighty Mouse, petitioning God, a mouse house in a cat's ear, werewolves, zombies congregating at a shopping mall, rising from the dead are not real.

 

Although I sure could use some pixie dust.

 

 

[Merry]

Works for me!

[Maricel Evasco]

Thanks for the responses everyone. 

I'm sorry I couldn't participate sooner....It's been a rough three weeks.

 

The real world for me  is one where both sanity and insanity thrive equally where mental flatulence is a necessary release for ideas or emotional dysfunction ....where God coexists with science in perfect disharmony...where heterosexuality is the norm, but alternative lifestyles are viable options...where hatred manifests, but love conquers,... where human perception create space and time where none existed before, where fair doesn't mean equal,... where Thanksgiving is celebrated by the victors and the carnage of the losers are forgotten...

 

a real world is a perfectly imperfect one.