The concept of reality may be questioned. Reality can be virtual, augmented, or expanded. It’s possible that television is being carefully scripted behind the scenes by producers. Is anything authentic if reality can be curated?
For years, social media has largely been all about appearances. Your Instagram grid represented whom you wanted to be your ideal self. Facebook feeds went from being thoughts dumping ground to being full of inspirational content.
LinkedIn wasn’t just where you detailed your work experience; it became an extension of how you saw yourself professionally. “Personal brand” became something people said without batting an eyelash.
Life can be messy and inconvenient, but people want to see perfection online.
Young people have started to share everything online, from break-ups to professional failures. These posts aren’t just interesting for viewers- they’re also cathartic for the posters. It’s a different way of managing personal branding.
What is BeReal?
The goal of BeReal is to provide a one-to-one correspondence between you and your followers. Every person on the network is informed simultaneously through a notification. You have two minutes to snap a photo of yourself and your surroundings, or else the software alerts your friends.
Instead of a post time, Response shows how long you took to respond to the notification. You can only add people you know directly. There’s no algorithm dictating whose posts you see, and there isn’t much to scroll through. Two minutes can also make up your time spent on the app, relieving tired social media fans.
Context is key
The fact that BeReal is distinctive from other programs is by design. The app is inherently reactive. Even the name implies that other platforms (and their users) aren’t being entirely honest. It’s unfiltered in a world where nearly everything else is filtered.
That which is earned returns to the one who acquired it.
When it first emerges, there’s always a debate about a new social media application’s longevity. We’ve seen it repeatedly happen: a fresh face onto the scene, and established platforms scramble to integrate their features into theirs. While it may be easy to adopt the spontaneity of BeReal to other platforms, that’s not what seems to be driving people towards this app.
Is there any way to reclaim “reality”?
Tastes change with time. It’s popular to broadcast the lows now, but we may quickly return to highly curated feeds in a few years. BeReal responds differently to the question that all social media platforms ask: how do you want people to perceive you? SOnly time will tell if they keep believing their answer.
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