Social media is a world confined to our laptops, tablets and smartphones, right? Wrong. There are all manner of products floating around that drag your favourite social networks, games and services kicking and screaming into what cyberpunk novels referred to as “meatspace” – the real, offline world. And here are some of the best.
Foursquare sew-on badges
Nerd Merit Badges
We don’t know about you, but we used to get a little electric jolt of a thrill whenever we unlocked a Foursquare badge (remember when people actually used Foursquare? Such an innocent time). Now you can tell the whole world – including old people who have no concept of social media – that you’re the mayor of your local municipal swimming baths, thanks to these sew-on patches.
EgoBook
EgoBook Facebook app
Ah, Facebook – the ultimate online narcissism enabler. And now you can bring your most compelling status updates and “look how cool/drunk I am” photos to your offline friends with EgoBook. Let’s face it: they deserve it for being too hip to have an account. It’s a personalised, hard-bound real world document of your entire Facebook life – or at least its greatest hits.
Instagram prints and posters
Firebox
The billion dollar filter-and-share photo service has become a mainstream sensation, and now you can share your best snaps with everybody – online and off. Select shots can be turned into Polaroid-style prints (complete with white space for Sharpie-scriven captions) or collage-style posters. New Age fun with a vintage feel indeed.
Pictionary
Amazon
With “social gaming sensation” Draw Something dropping users faster than a dodgy batch of heroin, it’s high time to return to the board game it ripped off: Pictionary! Mattel’s classic has you sketching out phrases and words for your chums to guess, and unlike Draw Something it (a)supports up to four players and (b)actually feels like a game – i.e. you can win.
Tweet notepad
Perpetual Kid
Leave “IRL” tweets for your friends and colleagues with this paper notepad, which leaves space for 140-character updates, hashtags and the time and date. Yes, it’s totally pointless and yes, it’s totally fun – as long as the recipient has at least some grasp of how Twitter works (unlike poor Moira Stuart).
