BeReal, is the reality of the new social network really authentic?

Hailed as “the anti-Instagram”, BeReal is quickly conquering the very young of Gen Z with his promise of authenticity. Presenting itself as a “new way to find out who your friends really are in everyday life”, The app has passed i 53 million downloads around the world on the App Store and Google Play. An incredible success, which all lead back to the proposal extremely realistic of the platform. But is it really so? Does the content circulating on the social network really represent the daily life of users?

In an era dominated by forced sharing of beauty, BeReal amazes with the will of remove two of the most distinctive – and criticized – elements of the platforms that allow it: the filters and likes. Overall, the social network managed to subvert the relationship between user and platform. It is no longer we who open the application every time we want to attract the attention of others, but it is she who calls us back through a notification that asks us to capture a moment of our daily life to share it with friends. But while all of this may seem incredibly realistic, so does BeReal it hides loopholes that allow you to circumvent all this desire for authenticity.

First of all, you can post your shot later than the notification you receive. If you are taking a class at university, are in a business meeting or just doing something else, then you can choose to postpone the sharing of your content on BeReal. And the same is true in reverse: if the notification arrives at a time of day that is not particularly lively, you can choose to ignore “being real” and wait to post when you are doing something more interesting. And already this questions the promise of authenticity of the social. Without considering that the platform also allows you to change the photo published in the two minutes of time available to users. If you don’t like yourself enough, or if you want to share something more realistic, then you can, even if your friends know you did (an acceptable compromise, let’s face it!).

As small as they may seem, these “shortcuts” demonstrate how a social media can not give up at all extreme care of the contents. As real as they are, BeReal’s photos also end up being beautiful. Shoot without filters, of course, but still with well-posed users. At this point the question arises: can the platform really be defined as authentic? Or it hides ours very well spasmodic search for the fruition of reality? Answering this question is not easy, especially since we should be wondering when we stopped
want to show us to our friends as we really are. As you can imagine, the exponential growth of social media has done nothing but push users towards an obsession with perfection.