BeReal: A More Authentic Fake

The concept of being real and social media don’t tend to go together, and despite its name, BeReal is no exception. 

The app’s rules are simple enough: one picture taken with the front camera and one taken with the back camera, simultaneously. Users receive a notification at a random time between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. every day and have only two minutes to take their BeReal snapshot. The catch, supposedly, is that its users don’t get the chance to filter how they present themselves to their friends and followers. 

The point of the anti-Instagram app is to eliminate the pressure to portray a perfect life. However, users are retaking their photos, taking them hours after the allotted time, and asking others to hold the phone so they can pose in their picture. Although followers can see how many retakes a BeReal took or how late it was posted, the entire concept of sharing your real life doesn’t hold up. 

BeReal is just as performative as Instagram or any other social media platform. It markets itself as ‘real’; less curated than content on a typical Instagram feed. By allowing for more candid pictures, it lends just enough authenticity to be an even better fake. 

When people on social media try to be authentic (or give the impression of authenticity), it leans into the internet’s current obsession with revealing someone’s genuine self. By making posts seem unguarded without exposing too much, BeReal posts seem less curated even though they’re not.

What shows up on BeReal isn’t any less self-conscious or any more honest than the content on Instagram or TikTok. However, its appeal doesn’t have much to do with the app’s empty promise of authenticity. Most users go to social media for an escape from real life, not the opposite. Social media is not the place to find uncurated content. While the premise of BeReal is worthwhile, straying away from hyper-filtered content isn’t what makes it popular. We’re obsessed with BeReal because we’re all in on the joke of pretending to be real. BeReal can be fun, but it’s far from real.