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Louise C asked in Social ScienceGender Studies · 1 decade ago

What is the 'real world'?

A question posted earlier in this section described a girl who was working a 48 hour week in a coffee shop. Apparently the asker of this question considered this girl not to be in the 'real world' and moreover categorised her as 'lazy'.

Now, if coffee shops are not in the 'real world' then what I want to know is, what world are they in? And if a person who works a 48-hour week is 'lazy' then what kind of hours do you have to work in order to not be considered 'lazy'?

14 Answers

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  • Missy
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago
    Favourite answer

    Hmmm...

    The funny thing is, is that the person who said it probably went to Starbucks this morning and ordered a Vente Green Tea Lemonade (Unsweetened)...

    So the barista behind the counter is lazy? Perhaps s/he shouldn't be so damn lazy him/her self and make their own coffee at HOME...I bet you anything said person doesn't cook, clean, or doesn't add any value to the "real world".

    There's tons of jobs I wouldn't want to work at, probably because I am the lazy one...but I fail to see how busting your a s s at a coffee shop for 48 hours a week constitutes as being lazy. The typical full time work week is 40 hours. Next time said person makes a comment like that, he should think before he speaks...and before he goes and orders supper from McDonalds...once more.

    Anyway, the real world is anything outside of cyberspace. That includes every job, every person you meet, every homeless person, every person on welfare, it includes EVERYTHING. I don't know what kind of world that person is living in, but perhaps he needs a break from Yahoo if he still doesn't know what the "real world" is.

  • Well, she has a job and is working at an above average amount of hours. I think the person who made that comment probably only considers "the real world" to be having a 9-to-5 white collar job. While the girl is doing food service, and food service and retail usually get looked down on a bit when it comes to jobs because most of the time they don't require post-high school education, at least in an entry-level position. So I hope that answers that part of your question.

    I'm also interested though in the simple concept of "The Real World". I think it has a lot to do with conformity and living a certain way. Some people feel it is their business to judge others who don't fit up to this standard. As a young person, I have heard the phrase "when you grow up and join the real world" used. I think it's sort of a social construction of reality- dictating what a person's life should be like and what's appropriate for a person to do.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I suppose she didn't consider it the real world as It is a minimum wage job and and these jobs are most often taken on by students in college whether part time or not..It is not a career like medicine or law as such and the tasks to master are facile to achieve. When a person is taught them it can be unthinking. I am doing such a job, 45 hour week but I don't consider myself in the 'real world' as of yet, I am also in college. She is certainly not lazy but the 'real world' is such an ambiguous term really. I suppose she meant that that person does not have pressure or an authoratative position. There are no 'weight of the world' responsibilities. People in these jobs just do as the are told. It is a job, not a career, there is no creative vitality gone into that!

    It is derogatory but I am just trying to understand her point!

  • 1 decade ago

    Some people fail to realize that every job has to be done by someone. If they think it is lazy to work at a coffee shop or in any other service job they need to consider this. If no one did it where would you get your coffee, groceries, etc. All jobs need to be done and people who do them even if you don't want to are not lazy.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Frankly, to make assertions about whether one is "lazy" by virtue of hourse worked per week is absurd and likely demonstrates a fundamental lack of experience with "real life." I routinely worked well in excess of 100 hours a week during my training (which is par for the course in my ridiculous profession), but I don't find that I am any more or less "lazy" per se than anyone else because of this.

    Labeling another human being as lazy is about as reasonable as labeling another as a misogynist (without any basis), so it's not even interesting to worry about such people. People who label others without a rational basis are boring and don't merit the time to think about.

  • 1 decade ago

    Wow, someone has to have pretty high standards to think someone doing above average hours at a physically demanding job which involves public contact is 'lazy'.

    To me 'the real world' usually means either (a) not cyberspace or (b) reality, where most people live, not the privileged lifestyle people such as (for example) very wealthy people, celebrities, etc, have.

    I would consider a person working long hours in a demanding job to be well and truly in the 'real world' as I see it, having to work, deal with the daily pressures of whatever financial or social pressures she faces, without the buffer of 'staff' or people paid to shield her from the unpleasantnesses of life.

    It's the world most of us inhabit, except the rare few.

    Cheers :-)

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Yeah, everything is both real to one and not real to another. It's relative.

    like that girl in the coffe shop. most people are idiots and think that living on a beach, in a big city, or talking with people every 10 minutes is a good life and part of the real world. the only reason why they even think this is because of society. even someone who plays video games all day is in "real world" to me.

  • ?
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    actual, I found a pal or 2 that pronounced something of the variety to me. while i became into informed Santa, the the teeth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny have been pretend, I brushed it off, yet while my "buddy" pronounced pokemon have been pretend, I had no decision yet to end his existence for telling me any such vile and ill lie.

  • 1 decade ago

    That's just foolish, string theory suggests that there are 7 dimensions and we comprehend just 3. We are all living under one delusion/illusion or another ; )

    I'd say the worst thing about working in a coffee shop is having to serve assholes with attitudes like that.

  • 1 decade ago

    Real world a sh8ty tv show that used(?) to be on MTV start all the stupied reality tv shows.

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