Time to BeReal
The craze of BeReal took over the world a few years back in 2022, two years after the app was first released in 2020. Today, it has grown to become a relatively established and successful social media app, especially amongst the Gen Zs. But what made it so popular? In a world with a plethora of social media apps right at our fingertips, what makes BeReal so special? Well, BeReal’s charm is explained pretty patently in its name;—— it’s a social media app that allows its users to “be real”. It’s an app that prides itself on authenticity, a stark contrast to the general perception of social media being a superficial, pretentious platform.
For those who do not know, BeReal is an app that sends users a notification once a day at a random time. This notification prompts users to post a photo of themselves and what they are doing right at that moment using the app’s dual camera. They are given two minutes to take this photo and any retakes are made visible to all their friends on the app. There is no curation, recorded history or editing of the photos posted. Friends on the app will also be able to ‘react’ to each other’s BeReals with little photo bubbles of themselves. This lays the groundwork for genuine interactions between users on the app.
All of BeReal’s features enable it to be a platform that is “unfiltered”, and thereby show a genuine side of the users on the app. This is something that differs vastly from other popular social media apps such as Instagram and Facebook. On a typical social media app, we are bombarded with posts consisting of carefully chosen, heavily edited photos. Most of the time, these posts paint an idealized picture of the user’s life, showing only the glitz and glamor. For example, elaborate vacations, monumental events and fun outings. But that’s where the beauty of BeReal lies. The app captures the spontaneity of the moment and truly gives users an accurate insight into the lives of their BeReal friends. I mean, even just statistically speaking, a larger part of life is made out of the uneventful little moments than the moments that are typically deemed ‘worthy’ to post. No one knows when the BeReal notification will come. It may come when you are still lazing in bed watching Netflix, no matter how much you want it to come during that concert you are going to later on in the day (based on a true story).
So what does this mean for the social media scene on a whole? Well, BeReal’s success and sheer popularity shows how much people crave authentic content on social media. To meet this demand, other social media companies may end up creating new apps or add new features to the existing ones. This would mean a complete revamp of the role social media plays in our society. Instead of the superficial, fanciful platform it has become, social media has the potential to grow to be a more “real” place, with BeReal at the forefront of this massive development. Social media developing into a more healthy, less toxic and brutally competitive environment is now in the cards for our society.
In conclusion,
In the world of social media platforms, BeReal is a striking exception. In a world where everyone is so focused on being viewed as “perfect”, it’s nice to have a platform where we get to take a peek into the actual, real lives of our friends, and really “be real”. Hopefully, BeReal will stay true to its nature, and always be there for us, allowing us to enjoy the merits of this unique app for a long time to come.
Thanks for reading
Written by: Kaelyn
Edited by: Jillene and Keris
Designed by: Cayden
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