I’ve been hearing the term ‘BeReal’ thrown around in the last few months but adamantly avoided downloading it. It was only when one of my friends deleted all social media but BeReal, that I gave in - just so I could keep tabs on whether they were alive or not.
BeReal is another photo-sharing app but unlike other social media, claims to value authenticity by spontaneously sending users a notification to ‘capture the moment’ once a day. I wasn’t sold initially, but I thought the idea was refreshing in an online environment where people only post themselves at their ‘best’. But as I used the app over time, I noticed that I was intentionally delaying my picture until I was doing something ‘interesting’, or retaking it because my hair looked messy, or if my friend wasn’t ready.
The intention to be effortless and ‘real’ was slowly becoming manufactured. It made me question: can we really ‘BeReal’? Or is all social media inherently performative?
Collectively, our generation seems to share a growing sentiment of wanting to strive away from a manufactured, ‘Kardashian’ era of social media, and into one that’s less fake. We are now in the era of ‘casual Instagram', where so-called minimal effort, unedited photos are captured and posted to give the impression that ‘I don’t care how you perceive me’. Oversharing ‘photo-dumps’ of low-effort pictures of your neighbour’s cat, a random rubbish bin, crying photos, and your Taylor Swift dedicated playlist are all examples of our attempts at ‘keeping it real’.
The intention, like BeReal, is commendable, but as it becomes more trendy an underlying standard and pressure grows alongside it. Suddenly a photo of your cereal in the morning doesn’t look as good as compared to someone posting their home-cooked dinner surrounded by taper candles.
The act of posting is inherently performative, if it’s going to be shared, subconsciously or consciously, it still has to be aesthetically pleasing. It’s no longer a spur-of-the-moment thing; it becomes an intentional act of doing something for the aesthetic.
However, it is refreshing to see people break away from the ‘perfect’ mould of social media, regardless if it's orchestrated or not. Celebrities like Emma Chamberlain, Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo have started becoming more ‘unfiltered’, posting snippets of their life in photo dumps.
It’s a positive thing that we are moving away from face-tuning our photos and attempting to unveil a more genuine façade of ourselves. This trend of portraying a more down-to-earth persona begins with good intentions, promoting individuality and self-expression. It strengthens a sense of connection and comfort with sharing whatever you want to share with lessened fear of judgement.
BeReal, in that sense, allows us to share intimate points of our lives with a closed loop of friends and family. We get to see and experience moments in other people’s lives, which creates a basis for conversation and connection. Little moments captured of someone reading a book could equally spread a calm and pleasant sensation to others, as compared to a photoshopped bikini advert.
Personally, I am guilty of bandwagoning into the trend of trying to appear more authentic on social media. There was a phase where I was oversharing, which later made me reflect on the necessity to expose everything and question whether it was making the intended impact I wanted, if not at all.
I found myself curating an online persona that strived to be authentic, open and assertive, but was disingenuous in nature.
Admittedly, there would be times when I would deliberately do something to capture a ‘cute’ photo to share. After all, we use social media to intrinsically ‘show off’, and I ironically felt pretentious in an attempt to seem less pretentious by posting mundane photos of myself. I would also compare myself to the celebrities or social media stars I mentioned, and think my photos weren’t effortlessly aesthetic enough. I tried not to care what I was posting, but really I did and was hyper-fixated on whether they met these invisible standards.
I think, ultimately, you have to balance and be conscious that we might not be able to be completely authentic online. There will be an underlying pressure that is inherent with all social media, as we compare ourselves to others, or hop onto trends or new aesthetics to follow.
There is beauty in sharing the everyday, and I find joy in scrolling through people’s weekend photo dumps and just seeing humans being human. However, I think it’s equally important to realise when to step away from this pursuit to seem authentic and actually embody being truly authentic in real life.
Be ‘real’ by putting your phone down, and wholeheartedly enjoying where you are in the moment. Reflecting on my personal usage, I still use Instagram and BeReal on and off, but I only post when I feel genuinely happy and comfortable doing so. If we don’t take social media too seriously, we can allow ourselves to genuinely have fun, whilst also sharing that contentment of mundanity with others.
Edited by Nadia Lincoln.