BeReal is a recently popular social media platform among teens that allows users to post a single photo each day at a specific time universal to all BeReal users. While users can post late, the app was designed to function as a platform for only candid and ‘real’ photos, to destroy people’s online facades.
The app rose to popularity in mid-spring 2022, after it became a trend on TikTok, another popular social media app, to post a BeReal, and the reactions to it.
“I have no idea how it became so popular,” said BeReal user Sarah Khan (‘23). “To me, it’s just a mixture of Instagram and Snapchat, or Snapchat 2.0. And our generation really loves both apps, so it’s like a mix of both.”
BeReal’s posting system is very reminiscent of Snapchat’s story feature. Users can post a photo, visible only to their friends, that will remain up for 24 hours. Other social media apps have also attempted to capitalize off of the success of BeReal. Tiktok also revealed a new feature, called Now, where users can post a photo or video of themselves, only visible to other users who have also posted the day’s “Now.”
“I totally see the appeal of BeReal,” says Charlotte Park (‘23). “People want to make social media fun and casual again, and the original format kind of forced people to post authentically.” BeReal reached #1 on the AppStore, and stayed there from July 25th, to August 14th, only getting knocked down after the release of Apple’s Top Widgets app.
Charles Hisle (‘23), consistent BeReal user, agrees, “People want to post candid photos of their real life without the pressure of staging a meaningful post.”
In a BeReal update, users can wait to post after the alarm goes off- the only caveat is that the photo will include the tag “posted late.”
Despite this, Khan believes that the app can allow for real self-representation, “People are literally taking photos in real time.” BeReal immediately posts after the user takes the photo, regardless of whether or not the user wants to post it.
“I think that it’s only truly better than Instagram, because the other apps serve other purposes beyond sharing photos of your life,” Hisle adds, on the authenticity of BeReal posts. “Instagram has more pressure to make a good post.”
Park has other thoughts. “It’s still social media at the end of the day,” she said. “People want to post the best of themselves.”
Park isn’t alone in this opinion; Brenna Yde (@notyde on tikok), an influencer with 1.2 million followers, voiced her thoughts.
“Does anyone else find it strange that in order to be real, you have to wait for this unexpected notification to pop up on your phone to tell you that it’s time to be real, which inherently takes you out of the moment you were actually being real in, to focus on capturing that moment?” she said. This tiktok received 46,000 likes.
Regardless, BeReal remains a popular app among Barstow students, and will likely be used for as long as the movement for authenticity continues.
