Jenna Donaldson | staff writer
Tired of people being fake on social media? You need to BeReal!
BeReal is a photo sharing app that allows users to post once a day. Every day at a random time, user get a notification: ⚠️It’s time to be real.⚠️ Everyone takes a photo using the front and back camera within 2 minutes. Post in time to discover what your friends are up to. If you post after those 2 minutes, it is marked as late.
The French social media app was released in 2020 and developed by Alexis Barreyat. After a couple of years, it gained popularity rapidly in early and mid-2022. As of the beginning of October, more than 53 million users have downloaded the app, according to TechCrunch.
One of the main selling points of the app is that there are no filters or stickers — it is meant to be real life. Since it’s only 2 minutes once a day, users don’t spend hours on the app. Once friends post, users can react with a picture of themselves rather than tapping a like button. Different facial expressions are available for responses.
More than half of the WHS student body is currently using the app.
Sophomore Harley Ridder has used BeReal for about three months. She enjoys having the app, “I can see what my friends are posting, and I like seeing what they’re up to. One thing that separates BeReal from other social media apps is the countdown before taking a picture. “You have to show people what you’re doing at an exact time.”
Junior Zach Frank downloaded the app in early August. He likes it because it captures your face on one side and what you’re looking at on the other in one picture. “I don’t like that I get so many notifications of other people posting.” He thinks BeReal is pretty similar to other apps since you are taking pictures just like other social media.
Sophomore Rhett Parry joined the trend at the end of August. He likes it because “It is very different, you are showing everyone what you’re doing and it’s a good way to stay connected.” He doesn’t like how sometimes it will be time to post late at night when he’s already asleep. “It’s different because you see everyone’s posts at the same time, unlike Snapchat,” Parry said. He thinks the app’s meaning is to show everyone how to be real and so everyone can see what you are doing at that exact moment.
Only time will tell if BeReal has staying power, or if it becomes a trend like many social apps (R.I.P. Vine).
All images above were from the BeReal on October 14.
The Charger 
Leave a Reply