How real can you really get on a social media app?
We’ve all heard that social media is performative–how Instagram only shows the perfect version of your life, how Snapchat filters hide your “imperfections,” and how TikTok makes your whole life a performance. Growing up during 2020, living our lives mostly online, and trying to get back to normalcy in 2022, we, Gen Z, have gotten tired of the false front we see plastered on every social podium. And as we feel that way, suddenly an app comes along to do just that. BeReal is an app that sends a notification at a random time of the day to all of its users simultaneously. It is supposed to capture you at an unplanned moment with no filters to show you as you are. This is based on a seemingly good idea to remove the concept that everyone is perfect, and replace it with the fact that we are all the same. However, the app has a few ways to bypass its “realness,” which essentially removes its whole purpose.
These are the instructions on how the app is used: the notification is sent out to everyone at a spontaneous moment, and then you have two minutes to take a picture of what you are doing and post it. If the timer runs out, you cannot see the other BeReals people posted, and when you post yours, it will show how late you were. A small motivation to post a picture, but at what cost? If being “real” is being yourself, with no performance or facade, wouldn’t pulling out your phone ruin the moment? Would it not take away the realness you were having? And if you wait to post later, it becomes performative, as if you were waiting until you were doing something worthy of posting. It essentially turns into what a lot of other apps have distorted into, a platform for “performative authenticity”. When the BeReal goes off, people tend to start fixing their appearance to make themselves look better, which is a natural response to taking a photo–but it is still not you in your most natural form. It is basically impossible to find true authenticity online because no matter what, it is a performance of some sort. It is a futile search for something that isn’t real.
We all long for a natural and real connection to the people around us, but we look to social media instead of face-to-face conversations. When will we learn that the apps given to us will not solve our interpersonal problems? I spoke to some of my friends, asking what their thoughts were on BeReal, and here is what they said: Samantha Woolford-Hunt (freshman, graphic design) says “BeReal is an oxymoron; every single picture is a set up.” Jeremy Samuel (freshman, nursing) continues that thought by replying, “BeReal makes me feel self conscious when I don’t look good.”
The app itself was made to be an inviting place to capture real-life stories, but we have turned its positive focus into a superficial presentation. We as students must learn that being “present in the moment” doesn’t have to be recorded or documented online. We can just be ourselves without cultivating a desirable illusion of our real lives.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.