How real is BeReal, really?

Eleanor Kanerva
TikTok Editor/Public Relations

BeReal, a social media app created in 2020, has recently taken over the internet because of its radical new way for a person to display their life online.

In the age of social media, teenagers are feeling pressured to take perfect Instagram worthy pictures of themselves. It can be overwhelming especially when a lot of them base their self-worth on the number of followers or likes they have.

What makes BeReal so popular compared to other social media apps is that at a random time each day users are notified to take a picture and post it. Doesn’t matter when or where, just take a photo of yourself within two minutes. It takes away their ability to take multiple posed pictures and select the perfect one to post, and participants don’t worry about followers or the like count because it doesn’t exist on this app. The idea is that it forces people to show their real life, hence the name BeReal.

Junior Amelia Kennerly said, “It shows that not everything you post has to be perfect. Social media is often fake and I think BeReal does a good job at counteracting that.”

However, how truly genuine is this social media app? Some users believe that although the goal of the platform is to show your authentic self, in reality, that’s not what’s happening.

“It should be called BeFake,” said senior Sydney Thornton. “It turned into every other form of social media; we’re only posting what others want to see.”

Social media serves as a sort of highlight reel of one’s life which BeReal was attempting to dismantle by forcing its users to post the reality, not just edited photos of their best moments, yet Thornton said that both her and her friends will frequently wait to post until they’re doing something interesting in their day. The app allows users to wait to post their daily photo, but it will show when it isn’t taken within the two minute time span in which the one posting is notified.

However, others do try their best to show their genuine selves and post right when they get their notification such as junior Julia Fowler.

Fowler said, “I think it defeats the purpose if you wait to post until you’re actually doing something interesting. The purpose of BeReal is to show a realistic representation of what life is like for high schoolers.”

Eleanor Kanerva- Tik Tok Editor/Public Relations This will be Eleanor Kanerva’s first year on ECHO staff. They also made several contributions while taking journalism class their junior year.

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