‘Mmmmm, ice cream so good, *slurp, slurp*, yes yes yes!’ As of late 2023, this semi-coherent phrase is familiar to anyone on social; its speaker, the uncanny femme-bot PinkyDoll, a household name.

PinkyDoll’s controversial fame comes from her expertise at pretending to be an NPC, or ‘non-player character’ – the automated, soulless characters that populate the backdrop of video games. And she’s not alone. From the canals of Venice to Miami parking lots, users and influencers alike have been running into walls or dancing like Sims characters, spending their offline time play-acting online worlds.

NPCs are just one example of the ways that physical and digital worlds, people and characters, reality and fiction are blending together. The jumbotron at a Drake concert is sifted through ‘crying face’ AR, making an offline event look like a TikTok filter. Offline parties and events are being themed around niche internet in-jokes, making real-life look like a live meme. The idea that there was a binary between social media and ‘real life’ was already unconvincing, but now, it’s more blurred than ever.

In today’s world, characters, communities, and behaviours born on the internet are moving seamlessly into offline worlds. And this interplay isn’t just tolerated – it’s expected.

Among social’s most fluent users, friendship and storylines don’t need to play out end-to-end online. Online worlds are expected to have much more active interplay with offline ones – whether that’s using digital communities to inform, expand, and guide offline interpersonal bonding, or using the blurred divide between reality and fiction to inspire new creative work, as with the wealth of AI content showing real-world celebs in surreal situations.

Across the board, whatever purpose social was serving – kinship, entertainment, self-expression – it’s now at its best when it’s breaking down the boundaries between worlds, not respecting them.