A student sits through another boring calculus class. The teacher mumbles, sounding like adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon, “waaa waa wa, wa wa, waa waa,” about derivatives and other math concepts he doesn’t understand at all. No one around him knows what is going on either, they are all bored out of their minds. As he looks around, he can see the faces of his classmates looking at each other trying to understand what the teacher is explaining. Suddenly, his phone rings, and a notification that says: “⚠️It’s time to Be Real!⚠️” appears on the screen of his phone. He pulls out his phone while the teacher is turned away and opens the app to take the picture before the timer runs out. As he takes the picture, the app captures on the front of his camera the faces of all his classmates looking at each other with confused looks. On the back camera, the teacher is caught writing on a whiteboard that is full of formulas that no one understood. 

Later that day all of his classmates saw the picture. They looked back and saw how confused they were during that class. Each of them burst out in laughter in their homes after remembering that moment. 

A new photo-sharing app called, “BeReal” has become a sudden obsession at the beginning of the 2022 school year, after trending online due to its great hype.

BeReal requires its users to post unfiltered pictures once a day, encouraging people to be the most authentic versions of themselves, instead of trying to appear as “perfect” in their social media profiles.

“I like the dynamic of the app, however, the concept of being real feels kind of weird because I’m used to spending lots of time making sure I post the best photos of myself,” Luciana Alzate, Senior, said.

How does Be Real work?

BeReal allows you to take and share photos of yourself and your life, but with a catch. The app only allows you to take a picture at a specific time of the day. BeReal will notify you with an “it’s time to Be Real” message at a random time. When the user opens the app, a two-minute timer will pop up, giving you a limited time to snap a picture of whatever you’re doing. If you don’t post right away, then the app will let your friends know that you posted late.

At the moment of posting the BeReal, the app will take a picture using the front and back camera of your device, with the purpose of showing your friends what you’re doing and what you look like. 

To interact with your friends’ posts, you can either give them a heart, a thumbs up, or a comment. The app also offers the option to react to others’ BeReals with a selfie of yourself, which is a more authentic way to interact by showing facial expressions.

If you don’t like the BeReal after posting, it will make you give a reason why you want to delete it. You can change your mind and leave it, or delete it with the consequence of not being able to delete the next one. Be Real tries to discourage users to spend lots of time obsessing over their posts by not allowing them to retake the picture multiple times.

Be Real was invented in 2020, but it is having its “boom” in mid-2022. The app originally started trending on TikTok, after large numbers of users posted videos about the timing of their notifications arriving, their friends’ reactions, and cool places where they got to take their photo of the day. 

“When I first downloaded BeReal, I fell in love with the originality of the algorithm. I feel like social media apps nowadays are all the same, with all the same types of functions so using BeReal felt like a culture shock,” Senior Isabel Cardenas said.

BeReal at TCS

“I remember the first time I heard of BeReal. I was scrolling through TikTok and I saw a bunch of videos of people talking about it. Then about two weeks later, I started seeing people taking them in the hallway,” Alzate said.

According to the news website, “Social Media Today”, downloads of the BeReal app have increased by an approximately 315% over this year. BeReal now ranks fourth in Apple’s app store. 

Some students said that they thought only girls were using Be Real. However, boys started hopping on the trend as well. Now the majority of both boys and girls in HS reported having BeReal. 

“The good thing about BeReal is that I spend a maximum of 10 minutes on it. I just take the daily photo, scroll through my friends’ posts and go on with my day. It is not as time-consuming as other apps for example, which I can spend hours in,” Cardenas said.

However, people around the school have had mixed opinions about the app. Some had really positive things to say while others had regular opinions about it. 

The two sides of BeReal

Since BeReal only allows for instant pictures, the platform has benefited a certain group of people. 

Most people that use social media platforms for recreational purposes claim to feel happier overall by using BeReal. The app has taken the many fake beauty standards that come with the use of photoshopping and retouching, as well as the “influencer culture” that comes attached to marketing and out-of-touch realities. 

“Ever since I downloaded BeReal I’ve felt like a lot of pressure has been taken off my back. I can scroll through my feed without feeling self-conscious about my appearance and overall life. At least I have the certainty that what I’m seeing isn’t staged or heavily edited,” Valeria Giraldo, a 10th-grade HS student, said. 

On the other hand, people that don’t use social media for recreational purposes only, aren’t great fans of BeReal. Especially business owners, or artists trying to reach a bigger audience don’t really benefit from an app like BeReal. 

“I truly don’t have anything against BeReal, I just don’t think it’s the right app for people like me who are trying to get a higher reach. Whether it is for business or recognition purposes, it’s just not the right place. I’d use it just for recreational purposes though,” Giraldo said.

BeReal’s algorithm is designed for users to interact with other users, whereas apps like Instagram are designed for users to interact with content.

“Be Real is the new Snapchat for sure. I don’t doubt that people prefer BeReal over many of the other social media platforms,” Alzate said.