Trendwatching.com suggests that the on-line world is now dominating our metaphors and expectations in the off-line world -- with on-line symbols taking real-world form, make-it-yourself services entering real stores, on-line functions increasingly built into physical products, and off-line communications and marketing referencing on-line lingo.

They offer some tips for doing business in this new reality, most of them involving adopting and emulating on-line symbolism in your off-line work. But they also offer reassurance that off-line life still has its unique and inextinguishable power, specifically:

1. Visibility
   Reality check: many consumers still value the physical over the virtual (and as we will see further down below, even the very wired are venturing out more, not less).
2. Warm bodies
   The more people connect, date, befriend, network and socialize online, the more likely they are to eventually meet up in meatspace. Why? Because people actually enjoy interacting with other warm bodies.
3. Mobile mania
   [Thanks to emerging mobile devices] cyberspace as we know it (read: a wonderous world of control and make-believe restricted to desktops at home or in poorly-lit offices, and laptops that don't venture too far from spotty hotspots) is about to vanish, and will be replaced by something that is everywhere, enabling consumers if not enticing them to actually venture out into the--you guessed it--real world.
   

How can you incorporate the language and metaphors of the on-line world, while still maintaining the unique voice and power of the physical world? It may take us a little while in the arts to find that balance.