Authentic social media: a term we know holds no true authenticity.

Since the creation of the worldwide internet and the great ability to communicate with strangers at any moment and nearly anywhere on the globe, we know the interconnectivity of humanity in this modern age has seen no limits. This does not mean it has been realistic.

In our current trends on the various social media that exist, there has been an ever-present worrying metamorphosis from cringe, air-out-my-whole-life-story type of forum posts, to intelligent artificially created bots that trick millions daily by pretending to be real humans. This means that historically, social media is getting increasingly unrealistic.

Our social media climbs further and further from the realism of our lives. Entire online personas are established in the children of the younger generations at earlier and earlier ages. Overall, it is not hard to admit that social media is fake. Full of unauthentic robots displaying versions of ourselves that don’t really exist in the way we choose to portray them. Amidst all the chaos and confusion of catfishes and online dating, we find ourselves faced with a new trend: BeReal.

“Your Friends for Real,” says the official website. Advertising nothing but an authentic social platform, BeReal is taking over the way people use social media. BeReal forces users to portray only what can be considered the most authentic and realistic type of feed possible.

“Every day at a different time, everyone is notified simultaneously to capture and share a Photo in two minutes,” the website explains. All over the nation, news organizations are posting about how BeReal is “what ‘casual Instagram’ wants to be,” according to Mashable, and Wired even titled its article “How to Use BeReal, the ‘Unfiltered’ Social Media App.”

BeReal is an updated version of social media. I am not saying all the other social media platforms are inauthentic, so to say, they’re simply different. The online personas allow us to portray ourselves how we would ideally like to be seen.

It can be compared to real life in the way it mimics everything from our profile picture being the identifying visual quality, your username a legible form of identification, your password is a unique code personable only to you and you alone, while your feed and boards and posts are all different windows into the life you want to show.

Social media is the ultimate form of expression, and up until now, it has mostly been about perfectly curating a version of yourself acceptable to be aired out to millions–billions, even. Worldwide celebrities can admit that this perfect, idealized version of themselves that many see more than they see in real life is absolutely exhausting. It is tiresome to keep up the image.

But BeReal is changing the game. With its daily, randomly generated notifications telling everyone, “Time to BeReal!” All my friends will call out excitedly, reminding everyone within distance to “Quick! Don’t forget to BeReal!” It’s almost ironic! One notification, for everyone. Real pictures for live reactions instead of emojis. No like button, but a reaction button.

The app is blatantly and obviously taking a previously hard-set idea and flipping it on its head, coining a term perfectly ironic to the situation. The last line the title webpage of BeReal gives us is “a new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life.”

You must Be Real.