Has bereal really changed the social media sector with its ethical proposal of naturalness?

Three years ago, in 2020, Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau sat together to create the app everyone would be talking about. BeReal started as a small start-up that pretended to challenge social media as a concept, committed to solving a problem that has been around in our society for years, the fakeness in social media. BeReal described it as “a new and unique way to discover who your friends are in their daily life” (BeReal, n.d.). One notification a day, two minutes to post, one candid photo, and a lot of reality.

 

We have proposed the hypothesis that BeReal is the market change driver that has settled the conditions for a new type of social media. However, this investigation aims to analyze to what extent has BeReal changed the sector. Deciding if the app is the victim of its proposal or the future in social media, will confirm or deny the hypothesis.

 

This analysis is substantiated by the concept of research and development and two marketing statements, the unique selling proposition, and a positioning map. The information is obtained from five supporting documents, including a survey with a sample of 87 people that represent the targeting audience of the company, Gen Z.

BeReal appeared as a disruptive idea that aimed to change the paradigm. They were planning on challenging the predisposed idea of what social media should look like, a platform where sharing reality was possible.

The unique selling proposition (USP) was carried out to determine whether BeReal has a strong aspect that makes it stand out from the competitors while aligning with what customers are asking for.

We considered as competitors a mix of those apps that offer a similar service. Social media networks in general, both realistic and not, are considered as competitors of BeReal.

BeReal has established a different kind of sharing (Santiago Cortés, 2022) excluding the pressure promoted by traditional social media. It has created a community that shares reality, presenting an authentic, spontaneous, and candid environment (Santiago Cortés, 2022). To do so, they have eliminated what they consider to be the main problems of social networks, addictive algorithms, ads, likes, filters, and influencers (Waters, 2022). It has been proven that these factors can trigger overwhelming anger, sadness, anxiety, and alienation (Santiago Cortés, 2022), as well as motivate insecurities and a sense of self-conservation in people. However, although quite alarming, BeReal has been the first social media app to address the problem, creating a point in favor of an app that listens to the customer and takes care of their well-being. BeReal makes people realize filtered lives on social media are not real and so it directly fights the inferiority complex (Boxall, 6 2022) or FOMO (fear of missing out), proving that other people’s lives are not as fun as what they post online.

 

On the other hand, companies like Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter are strong competitors in the market, with well-established brand names. Consequently, they have implemented strategies to retain their customers, and the users have stayed because they liked what they were offered. Users are constantly bombarded with stimuli that keep them entertained, one of the main things people search for when logging into an app. They enter social media because they want to escape reality, be in touch with the world, and see what their friends are doing at the time. One of the keys to retaining customers, and what BeReal missed. In BeReal, the concept of a real and healthy app also means monotony (Chicharro, 2023). There is no novelty nor entertainment beyond a photo a day per friend, inevitably translating to a lack of real connections (Boxall, 2022). There is no possibility to share memes, talk on DMs, or meet new people because everything is narrowed down to close friends. This translates into a weakness in BeReal that inevitably helps the rest of the apps to stand out.

 

Consumers’ desires are split between what BeReal and its competitors offer. They claim they are trying to run away from the fakery of traditional social media (Boxall, 2022) after feeling manipulated by a social network that uses algorithms to keep them scrolling non-stop (Santiago Cortés, 2022). However, after carrying out a survey with a sample of 87 volunteers, just 20,7% wanted an app with less emphasis on followers and likes (Santiago Cortés, 2022), while 74,7% searched for entertainment.

The data gathered showed one of the threats that BeReal is facing, human nature (Waters, 2022). Used to how social media worked, users, have misunderstood the purpose of BeReal and therefore its usage. They are not willing to give up on what traditional social media can offer them. As recorded in the survey with 32,3% of agreement, people tend to wait until something cool happens to post, while just 9,2% do it once the notification pops.

That 32,2% showed that no matter how hard the app fights against traditional social media, the change they try to implement is not real. The survey highlighted the hypocrisy of the consumer. There is a struggle between the rational and the emotional, where the consumer rationally wants a change, but emotionally wants an escape from reality.

 

Overall, there is a clear difference between BeReal’s practices and what the customer is really looking for. BeReal aimed to successfully address a current necessity, by challenging the traditional social media concept, and creating the basis for a new type of app they thought people wanted. However, they have not considered the difference between what the customer thinks is better for them and what they really want.

The positioning map was created to locate both BeReal and its competitors in the market. Using an axis to see the relationship between the degree of reality and the number of active users will show the possible gaps in the market and the concept (naturalness/imposture) that attracts more users.

 

The positioning of each app was based on real statistics of the monthly active users of 2023 (Statista, 2023) (Rudy, 2023) (Santiago Cortés, 2022), and our judgment and knowledge to determine the level of naturalness each of them had. While BeReal had the lowest number of active users and the highest degree of naturalness, Facebook had the highest number of users 10 and was located way less fake than most apps. Snapchat, Twitter, and Pinterest together with Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok all ranged in the lower quadrant, high imposture with more or fewer users. LinkedIn and Telegram were ranked with BeReal as the most realistic, but not at the same level, as their dynamic is based on chats and job offerings where there is a small room for sharing a fake life. Whatsapp is the exception to the chat apps, as it includes statuses that are quite like Instagram stories. The gap is on the upper side, particularly in the right quadrant, where the popular and most natural social networks would be located. The upper quadrant being mostly empty shows the niche market BeReal has entered, while the upper right quadrant shows the novelty of the realistic proposal in the market.

 

We can conclude, traditional social media apps have effectively positioned themselves in the imposture and the users, as confirmed in the USP, are predisposed to these types of apps. The fact that BeReal has tried to change the market is undeniable, however, for now, the rest of the apps are not willing to change their strategy because it seems aligned with customers' likings.

Three years after its release, BeReal has not been the disruptive idea they thought it would be. When the idea itself is screaming for a change, the business should invest in research and development (R&D), using customer feedback to improve the existing idea and therefore meet their “new” needs. For BeReal, the lack of income (Waters, 2022) has pushed this option away, however, now, redirecting the concept in the same direction as the market could be the only way to save it.

 

The need for research and development was clear after the survey was made and everyone proposed ideas for improvement. However, what was said confirmed one more time that people are not prepared for this new type of social media. To the question “In your opinion, what do you think could be improved?” (Figure 13). The answers included more stimulus, better timing to post, DM’s, stories, filters and tags. An attempt to transform BeReal into an app like Instagram.

 

Research and development will avoid the gap between what the app is doing and what the customer wants. It will use customers’ feedback, to redesign their concept aligned with what aims to be successful in the long run. We are living in a world of constant and rapid change where what customers want changes from one day to another, so BeReal’s capacity to endure constant renewal is what will ensure its survival.

One of the limitations of the research is the sample used in the survey. Considering the millions of people who use social networks a day, the opinion of just 87 people may not be very realistic, however, it is enough for an estimate of reality. For this reason, looking to the future, to improve the investigation and to achieve a more accurate result, a large-scale sample, with people from different countries and different backgrounds, would provide a better approach to the answer.

 

The results given by the USP demonstrate how BeReal identified a real problem, which solution was highly demanded by social media users, but at the same time were not ready for the change. The positioning map supported the idea that BeReal had entered a niche market with no direct competition and that the apps with the higher active users were the ones that most relied on imposture. It appeared a slight possibility that users felt more attracted to those apps because they entertained them and didn’t show the mundane part of their everyday lives. The survey was just the confirmation needed to conclude BeReal has not achieved a real change in the market because customers, although aware of the effects social media had, were not willing to give up on it. Even in this app, where showing reality was the only requirement, they have managed to break the rules to share with the rest the good things about their lives. They have experienced a fight between their emotional and their most rational side, where what was ethically correct for them was overcome by what they really wanted.

Supporting documents -

Boxall, A. (2022). Call me a phony, but anti-instagram app BeReal is too real for me. Digital Trends.

 

Chicharro, R. (2023). Llevo un año usando BeReal, y oficialmente ya estoy aburrido. Hipertextual.

 

Santiago Cortés, M. (2022). The Anti-Instagram App Promising to Make Us Feel Good. TheCut. Waters, T. (2022). Opinion: BeReal is no more real than any other social networking app. Daily Bruin.

 

Other sources - 

BeReal. (n.d.). BeReal. Your friends for real. Retrieved from bere.al: https://bere.al/en Rudy, D. (2023). 107 Important LinkedIn Statistics for 2023 (Data & Trends). Retrieved from DemandSage: https://www.demandsage.com/linkedin-statistics/

 

Statista. (2023, January). Most popular social network worldwide as of January 2023, ranked by number of monthly active users. Retrieved from Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number- of-users/

 

Tan, C. (2019). Should we focus on the Unique SELLING Proposition or the Unique BUYING Proposition. Medium. Retrieved from https://charmaintsf.medium.com/should-we- focus-on-the-unique-selling-point-or-the-unique-buyingproposition-9fec2194e2d3

Supporting document 1

Source -  Daily Bruin

Date - September 21st, 2022

Summary - This document highlights reasons why BeReal will not last much longer. Talks about -

• People misusing the app.
• The app not including ads, influencers, etc. which will not be profitable long-term.
• The app not being as addictive.
• How the app will inevitable become as dangerous as other social media platforms, due to business factors and human nature.

Link + APA: https://dailybruin.com/2022/09/21/opinion-bereal-is-no-more-real-than-any-other- social-networking-app (Waters, 2022)

 

Every day, more than 10 million people get a notification that initiates two minutes of chaos. Poses are struck. Lighting is adjusted. Selfies are taken.

 

It’s time to BeReal.

 

Two years after launching, BeReal has secured its place as a social necessity among students, celebrities and brands with its unique approach to posting. Unlike other forms of social media, BeReal sends all users a spontaneous notification – every day, at a different time – that gives them two minutes to post simultaneous forward and reverse-facing photos.

 

While BeReal advertises itself as a way to share your real life with true friends, it has fallen victim to the very problems it is trying to solve. BeReal has become the newest way to stage how you want friends to view your life and could easily become the next toxic social media company.

 

Let’s be real: BeReal is anything but real.

Widespread research about the harmful effects and addictiveness of social media has fed a new generation of apps that attempt to safely connect people without negative emotional and social consequences. But these apps often utilize a business model that requires users to spend extensive amounts of time scrolling through posts mixed with highly curated advertisements. With limited access to news organizations, influencers and addictive algorithms, BeReal looks to be much safer than other forms of social media. But it’s difficult to see how it will become profitable without changing something.

 

An app that shows just your friends with no advertisements or infinite scroll pages seems too good to be true – and that’s because it is.

 

Facebook evolved to curate your feed with news and suggested posts. TikTok features a never- ending stream of computer-crafted content. Snapchat introduced Discover with news and entertainment content. Instagram emphasizes reels on the explore page. These features were designed to keep us looking at posts and advertisements for as long as possible.

 

Ofir Turel, a professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at California State University, Fullerton, said viewing engaging content or receiving likes and comments on our posts releases dopamine, the hormone responsible for pleasure and satisfaction. This random and occasional dopamine hit – a phenomenon called variable reward – is similar to the experience of occasionally winning at a casino, which keeps us scrolling and posting.

 

BeReal uses variable reward when we view our friends’ posts or get reactions and comments on our posts, releasing dopamine that encourages us to open BeReal throughout the day and post again next time.

 

Even though it doesn’t keep us scrolling for long, BeReal still hooks us.

 

Turel added his research showed that individuals who don’t receive as many likes are more likely to post risky photos in hopes of increasing their engagement, feeding a social pressure to achieve the same amount of likes as our friends.

 

“Variable rewards, together with very tailored content that creates ongoing engagement – and together with these social pressures – creates a perfect storm for people to be more than engaged,” Turel said.

 

As a culture, we’ve collectively decided that whenever something impressive happens – whether it’s going on an exotic vacation or visiting a new restaurant – it’s a moment to be shared on social media. This allows us to control how others view our lives, even if it’s not necessarily the truth.

 

BeReal attempts to solve this issue by asking users to show off the mundane parts of their lives through images that would traditionally never make it onto a social media feed – in this case, the other side of the camera.

 

Unfortunately, many people have a hard time admitting their life isn’t always exciting, and being immersed in a fabricated version of reality doesn’t make it any easier.

 

Natalie Nielsen, a second-year public affairs student, said she sometimes won’t take her BeReal at all if nothing interesting has happened, like if she’s been at work all day.

 

Nielsen added that she will occasionally “post late” when she knows something eventful will happen later – a phenomenon where users can post their BeReal outside of the two-minute window accompanied by a disclaimer that it was posted late.

 

Likewise, Colin McMahon, a third-year English student, said he posts late more than half the time. He said he saves BeReal for a moment that reflects how he wants to be represented to his followers.

 

“It (BeReal) actually promotes users to embellish their posts and sensationalize their lives,” McMahon said.

 

Posting late or never posting has become a way for people to curate their BeReal in a similar way to Instagram with the caveat that this is their everyday life, not just some rare vacation.

 

Although tame now, BeReal could easily morph from an innocent app into another dangerous social media nightmare. This may simply prove the limitations of social media – no matter how hard an app tries, business factors and human nature will inevitably reproduce problems of addictiveness and social comparison.

 

BeReal is a fun new way to show others what you want them to see. But at the end of the day, it’s no more real than any other social networking app.

 

Supporting document 2

Source - The Cut

Date: May 20th, 2022

Summary - It highlights the positive qualities that has made BeReal as popular as it is now-

• It is unique and irreplaceable, an app where you post stuff you wouldn’t post in other social media.
• People have the chance to experiment with a new type of posting.
• It is not addictive, which helps to disconnect and avoid what other social media platforms cause, like depression, anxiety, sadness, isolation, etc.

The article also includes statements of users praising the app’s authenticity. Link + APA: https://www.thecut.com/2022/05/bereal-app-solve-social-media-problem.html (Santiago Cortés, 2022)

 

BeReal isn’t just a photo-sharing app — “it’s life, Real life,” the company says. The buzzy social- media app du jour is “authentic, spontaneous, and candid” and aims to “make people feel good about themselves and their lives” and say good-bye to “addictive social networks.” In other words: the answer to all our social-media prayers.

 

It’s free to anyone with a smartphone — though it’s still in its start-up phase, so some sort of monetization is presumably coming — and it’s so embedded into the daily life of its users that even if you’re not on BeReal, you’re hearing about it on TikTok and Twitter. Maybe celebrities are using it, but you wouldn’t know unless you’re friends with them. Even Chipotle (an early TikTok adapter) is on BeReal.

 

Imagine: Social media that made you feel good, cured you of your anxious-preoccupied attachment style, healed your body-image issues, and mended your relationship with your mother just by making photo-sharing simple and honest.

 

Here’s how it works: The app delivers an unscheduled daily notification that gives you two minutes to take and post a photo of yourself and your surroundings — only then can you see what your friends on the app have posted. You can’t edit the photos, and you can’t import old ones either. The goal is to capture your crusty, boring, lovable self just as you are in that very moment.

 

Early reviews of the app lauded the “delightful way in which this forces an authenticity” and how the BeReal feed is “aggressively normal” in a good way.

 

BeReal is the product of a namesake French start-up founded in 2020. Since then, the social- media app has amassed about 8.7 million downloads and counts on 3 million monthly active users. On the App Store’s “Top Free Apps” chart, it’s ahead of Snapchat and Facebook. According to Business Insider, its downloads have increased by 315 percent just this year.

 

Amid all the complaining we do about social media, the words real and authentic come up a lot, which is why BeReal is so attractive. It dangles the prospect of a social-media experience that feels fun and airy, that can be small and intimate and doesn’t threaten you with your own “brand.”

 

Like many BeReal users, Katie Kim, a 21-year-old college student living in College Station, Texas, joined after watching a friend post to it in person and thought the concept was fun. Kim had already abandoned TikTok because it was too overwhelming, spending most of her time online posting on Twitter to the delight and entertainment of her 13,000 followers. On BeReal, she is learning to enjoy a different kind of sharing: “It’s not really that special,” she says, “but it’s only special on this app. I wouldn’t post it anywhere else.”

 

Once, while sobbing through a K-drama on YouTube (“I’m emo”), Kim got a BeReal notification: “It wouldn’t occur to me to cry and be in the moment and take a photo of such an emotional thing.” But the way she and her circle of 20 or so friends use BeReal made it worth sharing.

 

In practice, it seems as though BeReal offers a playground for experimenting with a new kind of posting, a new way of presenting ourselves to our peers and the world. Those who download it are committed to, or at least interested in, exploring a kind of low-stakes photo-sharing that doesn’t emphasize follow or like counts or even aesthetics.

 

Fellow BeReal user Sanjulaa Chanolian admits she spends hours editing her Instagram pictures: “I spend a lot of time editing filters, changing the background, making it look more aesthetic.” Casual Instagram? It’s “an interesting aspect of the app” she hasn’t “hopped on quite yet.” For the 20-year-old Lincoln, Nebraska–based student, BeReal was a challenge. “In the beginning, I wanted to make sure I was ready for the day in case I get my notification from BeReal.” After all, if you know you’re going to post a picture of yourself, nothing can stop you from doing what you can to put your best foot forward. “But now I’m just going to take it how I look.”

 

Others still choose to game the system, though. Kaitlin Blackburn, a 21-year-old psychology student from Manchester, recalls someone she knew posting two photos of her laptop on her bed instead of the required selfie. “If you’re lying in bed looking like shit, that’s okay!” Blackburn says. “Just show that you look grim and that you’re in bed watching The Kardashians — you shouldn’t feel worried about showing your face like you have to hide it!” And if you do, just ... don’t use BeReal.

 

Some people have made a habit out of receiving the notification and purposely posting late in order to capture something cooler or more fun. And Chanolian describes how, in her circle, everyone posts one another in their BeReal if they happen to be in the same room when they get the notification. So it’s easy to spot how BeReal can have the opposite of its intended effect by giving people a great way to read into a skipped post or, worse, find out all your friends are hanging out without you.

 

But Blackburn concedes that “it does feel more authentic than standard social media.” Chanolian agreed: “I absolutely think it’s more real.” But once we dive into exactly what we mean by “real,” we can’t get far past “no filters” and “no influence.” Kim thinks authenticity is a spectrum: “I’m not even 100 percent authentic; I’d be lying if I said that.”

 

In fact, why on Earth would we offer the social internet a thoroughly accurate and transparent record of who we are? We’re just people, living our messy lives the best we can, sharing what we want to along the way — are we even capable of capturing and sharing the kind of authenticity we’re talking about? In this economy?! Of course, honesty matters, but what does this fixation on authenticity accomplish? Personally, I think our hunger for “authenticity” is a misplaced desire for simple connection. We want to look around us and not see a world that makes us feel angry, alienated, and lonely. Authenticity is too simple a solution for such a monumental problem.

 

Blackburn thinks authenticity has turned into just another product to sell: “I feel like realness and authenticity are also becoming redesigned on social media, and I think even when we’re talking about someone being real, it’s not the real real, it’s the ‘New Real,’ which is more down- to-earth than what we put on, but it’s still not the actuality.” It’s Real^TM.

 

Upon downloading the app, I was prompted by some setup instructions to take a picture of my surroundings with my rear-facing camera and then a selfie with my front-facing camera. I start by taking a picture of my laptop screen when — out of nowhere — I’m assaulted by my phone’s selfie camera when it’s still angled for a photo of something on my lap. The app turned the camera around so I didn’t have to, depriving me of the opportunity to switch angles or adjust, all in the name of authenticity. I thought I’d have a chance to at least find my light, but this moment taught me that “real” is something the app was asking me to perform on its own terms.

 

In the same App Store that ranks BeReal as an emerging force in social media (currently in 13th place, ahead of Instagram and Twitter), photo-editing apps still own the top spots. Which, fine. I don’t think photo editing, self-editing, artifice, and “fakeness” are really the enemy we imagine. If mega-online-ness has given us anything, it’s the precious knowledge that things we make, things that are mediated, and even things that are fake can also be meaningful.

 

But still, social media can trigger overwhelming anger, sadness, anxiety, and alienation. The causes of the alienation so many of us feel — on and off social media — are structural, systemic. So it’s weird to assume a series of individual acts of authenticity are going to make all that go away. Maybe the best kind of social media is limited social media. Not the screen-timer self-deprivation kind but social media that doesn’t have the venture-capital ambition of becoming an all-engrossing metaverse with the power to squeeze multiple revenue streams out of our every move. Second to the authenticity sell, this is the appeal of BeReal: It’s not trying to engulf you (at least not yet). Maybe the best kind of social-media platforms are ones we feel we can easily abandon and come back to. Ones that cater to hyperspecific needs like sharing a daily photo with a small circle of friends. Or just your mother.

 

Supporting document 3

Source: Hipertextual

Date: January 6th, 2023

Summary - The author narrates his experience as a user of BeReal, from the initial days to the present. At first, he was led to download the app for the novelty and popularity of it. He wanted to be in contact with his friends in a more real way, however it came a time when monotony and the false reality made him, and his friends stop using the app. It is a testimony of a user, giving another perspective on the topic of reality in BeReal.

Link + APA: https://hipertextual.com/2023/01/llevo-un-ano-usando-bereal-y-oficialmente-ya- estoy-aburrido (Chicharro, 2023)

 

“Oye, Rubén, ¿tienes BeReal?”. Es el breve mensaje que recibí de alguien con el que hace un año hice una especie de amistad a través de Instagram. Justo en una época en la que la app de origen francés comenzaba a ser ligeramente popular, aunque todavía no había calado de lleno entre usuarios; al menos, no entre los españoles, porque otros países de Europa, BeReal era muy conocida por los universitarios. Yo descubrí la app a través de TikTok semanas antes de recibir la pregunta con la que he comenzado este artículo. Tenía, incluso, un usuario creado, aunque ninguno de mis amigos se la había descargado, y para aquel entonces, tampoco pensaban hacerlo. Decidí, por tanto, agregar a ese colega de Instagram para probar la plataforma de primera mano.

 

He de confesar que mi objetivo inicial era utilizarla temporalmente para averiguar que se escondía detrás de esa app tan “poco tóxica” que permitía compartir la ubicación exacta entre los usuarios, pero a lo largo del tiempo, su mecánica me acabó gustando tanto que, sin darme cuenta, me convertí en un usuario activo más de la plataforma. Un año después, aquí sigo, recibiendo la notificación diaria que me alerta de que es hora del BeReal y posando para que mis amigos —aquellos que inicialmente se negaban a crear un perfil— puedan ver lo que estoy haciendo en ese momento.

 

Hay, sin embargo, una importante diferencia entre hace un año y hoy - using BeReal has gone from being something, let's say, exciting and fun, to being tremendously boring.

 

Los primeros meses en BeReal

One of the keys to BeReal is the possibility of seeing the naturalness and reality of people through a single publication. BeReal, en concreto, envía una única notificación al día en un horario aleatorio, y ofrece un máximo de dos minutos para que el usuario pueda tomar una foto de su rostro (vamos, un selfie) y de lo que tiene a su alrededor, de forma simultánea. Después de esos dos minutos, también es posible hacer la captura —lo que los usuarios conocemos como hacer el BeReal— aunque la app muestra al resto de amigos añadidos que esa publicación se ha hecho tarde.

 

The first time, this mechanic is really entertaining. Es una forma diferente de ver lo que están haciendo tus amigos en ese momento, sin los filtros de Instagram, o sin fotos aesthetics (es un término que utilizamos para definir fotos bonitas o visualmente atractivas).

 

BeReal, además, te deja reaccionar a esas publicaciones con un selfie, que también puede ir acompañado de un emoji para reflejar tu estado actual al ver esa foto, y también puedes comentar en la imagen, como sucede con otras redes sociales.

 

La cosa fue volviéndose más entretenida cuando BeReal comenzó a ser muy popular en España —y en el resto del mundo—. Fue, sobre todo, durante el verano de 2022. Mi lista de amigos en la app creció de 4, a 20; cantidad considerable teniendo en cuenta que BeReal recomienda agregar solo amigos, por lo que tenía más publicaciones “reales” que ver.Al ser en verano, además, esos BeReals eran bastante divertidos. La mayoría se encontraban de vacaciones y, por ende, haciendo planes diferentes.

 

Al tener más amigos, también tenía más interacciones en mis propias publicaciones. Aquellos con más confianza siempre reaccionaban a mi BeReal y me comentaban al ver que estaba de viaje o que había subido la publicación un par de horas tarde. Así, todos los días; hasta que terminó el verano.

 

Para sorpresa de nadie, la realidad es aburrida

En septiembre, many of my friends who installed BeReal for their “reality” show over the summer had stopped using the app. Of the 20 people I had on my list, only 15 uploaded the publication, many of them hours late, without caring about the philosophy of the app.

 

Seguía siendo entretenido, porque reflejaban la realidad de la vuelta a las clases o al trabajo. But it stopped being so weeks later, when I realized that all of them raised practically the same BeReal. With the same pose. With the same background. Aquel amigo que me preguntó por primera vez si tenía BeReal, y que en verano veía con encanto y emoción los planes que él hacía mientras estaba de becario en una compañía en Londres, ahora publica todos los días fotos en frente de su ordenador. A la persona que se pasaba sus ratos en la playa con su moto de agua, ahora solo la veo en su habitación. Así, sucesivamente.

 

That monotony is something that I also show in my BeReals. En la mayoría de mis publicaciones salgo con prácticamente la misma pose, mientras que la cámara trasera captura la pantalla de mi ordenador. Pantalla que en muchos casos muestra simplemente mi fondo de escritorio para evitar filtrar información confidencial. Porque quiero ser real, pero también quiero conservar mi trabajo.

 

No es nada malo, y tanto yo como la mayoría de mis amigos, it complies with the mechanics of the app: reflect reality and avoid the toxicity of other platforms such as Instagram. But let's be honest, always seeing practically the same photo, the same reactions and the same comments, tires. In the end, reality is boring.

 

BeReal ya no es lo que era hace un año

Puede que the fact that BeReal only has one function has also had an impact on the fact that now, after a year, it is a boring app. In the end, we spend hours on Instagram because every minute we see something different, no matter how toxic or unreal, it entertains us. Y te voy a ser sincero, no estoy en BeReal porque sea una app menos tóxica que Instagram o porque cuida la salud mental de las personas. De hecho, BeReal puede ser más o igual que tóxica que la red social de Meta. Incluso la propia compañía promociona a menudo en sus perfiles sociales cómo una de las futuras funciones de la app pueden causar ataques de celos a muchas personas.

 

BeReal, además, it has become extremely predictable. La app, recordemos, envía una notificación diaria a través de una hora aleatoria que escoge un algoritmo, excepto en los días en los que hay un acontecimiento importante de por medio. Durante la temporada del mundial, la notificación saltó justo en el momento en el que jugaba España, o durante la final de Francia vs. Argentina. En Nochevieja, la notificación saltó a las 23:59, un minuto antes de que acabara el día. Como diría Taylor Swift, “nada de eso fue accidental”.

 

Pese a ello, reitero, sigo siendo usuario de la app, y continúo publicando mis BeReals, aunque no con tanto entusiasmo como los primeros meses. Supongo que porque lo he convertido en una rutina y hacerlo, la verdad, no me cuesta nada. La mayoría de mis amigos, sin embargo, han dejado de utilizar la app por el mismo motivo: aburre.

 

Supporting document 4

Source - Digital Trends

Date - May 26th, 2022

Summary - The article highlights the awkwardness of BeReal. Giving an emphasis on the negatives of the app, like-

• Posts are empty of meaning so prevents users from connecting with the person that is posting.
• “RealMojis” are an awkward way to react to the posts if there is not a lot of confidence with the one posting it.
• Users might be portrayed as painfully ordinary. On the other hand, other platforms may be able to portray their real self.

Link + APA: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/bereal-social-media-app-didnt-show-the- genuine-me/ (Boxall, 2022)

 

The prospect of Twitter, my preferred social network of choice, dramatically changing in the near future prompted me to idly look at other options, and one that instantly caught my attention was BeReal. The app’s hook is its authenticity. By pushing you to post a photo in a random two-minute window, it promises to deliver an uncut, unfiltered view of your everyday life — essentially, it’s the anti-Instagram.

 

I went to it with the hope I would make real connections with genuine people, free from the fakery and careful curation of other social networks. Unfortunately, I came away missing the supposedly fake worlds I left behind because the BeReal didn’t capture the real me at all.

 

Two minutes per day to be real

Here’s how BeReal works: The app sends a notification at a random time once each day telling you it’s time to BeReal, by which it means it’s time to post a photo showing what you’re doing at that exact moment. You must use the app’s camera feature, which has no editing features and definitely no filters. When you tap the shutter button, it takes a photo with the rear and the front camera at the same time. The photo posted primarily shows the rear view, with your face in a small picture-in-picture view in the top corner.

 

Try to avoid the front camera’s stare and the app suggests taking the photo again, reminding you that your friends love to see you. Miss the notification, or decide it’s not a good time, and you can post past the window, but most users don’t seem to exploit this loophole. If you don’t post, then you can’t view everyone else being real in the app, so there are no lurkers here. It’s a simple concept, simply executed, but what’s it like?

 

Your life in the mirror

At first, the authenticity is intriguing, almost voyeuristic. The snaps posted show people’s true life, often in the most intimate of environments. Photos of the ceiling taken from bed are common, as are feet-up-in-front-of-the-TV shots, along with blurry images of people going about their lives with expressions ranging from harried to indifferent. If you’ve ever wondered what a random person online is really doing at one exact moment in time, BeReal will cure your curiosity.

 

There’s a lot of reality on BeReal. It’s initially comforting to see not everyone’s life is any more exciting than your own, and a whole lot of other people are also sitting at a desk working, having a mediocre meal, watching the TV, or performing some mundane task or another. Its evidence we’re all in the rat race together. BeReal celebrates this ordinariness, and the App Store blurb gleefully tells you this is not the app for you if you want to be famous. It’s all very noble. But on the other hand, I already live the life I see on BeReal. Do I really need to see everyone else’s drudgery too? No, and it’s here where BeReal’s lofty goals of letting you “show your friends who you really are, for once” falls down. The app may show a periodic snapshot of my real, everyday life, but it does a terrible job of showing me as a person, and makes connecting with new people off-putting and awkward. Let me explain.

 

Overcoming the awkwardness

The combination of generic unedited photos of train carriages, and living rooms, offices, along with the inherently dull reality of the situations captured, makes it very hard to connect with others on BeReal. There’s no soul or emotion to the photography, a byproduct of the app’s urgency. A photo of someone’s feet while they wait for a taxi will never, ever encourage me to follow them because, essentially, I am that person, and you wouldn’t want to follow me because my life is similarly dismal.

 

You can only comment on your friends’ pictures, you don’t seem to be able to view previous posts, and hardly anyone adds a caption to their photos, so the entire experience is insular, disconnected, and oddly surreal. If you have a large circle of friends from your real life using BeReal, it’s probably a bit more fun, but not all of us have friends who love social media, so what’s it like making new ones on BeReal? Unfortunately, it’s a bit weird. Worse is the awkward, voyeuristic feeling that goes along with asking to follow someone. You can add people to your feed, but you have to request to follow them first. Because of the nature of each post and the lack of historical information, it’s impossible to see if you will like their posts in the future, or really understand anything about them at all. But worse is the awkward, voyeuristic feeling that goes along with asking to follow someone who only posted a photo of them ironing, walking to work, or staring at the TV.

 

How about breaking the ice with a reaction to a photo? A RealMoji, as a reaction is known in the app, is actually a selfie. You can’t anonymously like a photo, and you’re instead instructed to mimic common, positive emojis and send that as a reaction. It’s fine (just) if you’re reacting to someone who knows you personally, but less so when it’s someone you don’t, or if you are in any way socially awkward. You’ve either got to be very comfortable with being real to strangers, or have a wide network of real-life friends using BeReal for it to feel fun.

 

Are there any must-follow accounts? A celebrity being real, a BeReal influencer, or that newcomer who found a way to capture what makes the platform fun and unique before anyone else? If any of these exist, BeReal doesn’t highlight them, and if any do emerge, surely they will go against the ethos of the app. The typical Instagram influencer does not influence by being real, and few celebs will be desperate to take a selfie from an unattractive angle, as the BeReal photo mode can force you to do.

 

It’s not me

BeReal is an unflinching peek into a world as ordinary as my own. Has it freed me from the filtered, carefully curated worlds of Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, which BeReal says are a waste of my time, and allowed me to revel in the glory of my unexceptional but true self? No, it has done the opposite.

 

I don’t meet someone for the first time and talk about what I was doing at just after 2 p.m. yesterday because chances are, it was very tedious. No, we talk about things we love, tell funny stories, and find common ground in interests or work. BeReal will rarely be about those things if you post when it tells you, unless you are living some kind of dream life, or you postpone sharing a photo until you are. The irony is, it’ll then be the same as other social networks.

 

The problems social media can cause with its unrealistic depictions of people, environments, and lifestyles are very real. Showing people there’s nothing wrong with leading a normal life is a big part of rectifying this, but BeReal doesn’t feel like a celebration of normalcy. It feels like you’re forced to show nothing but the most ordinary, unfiltered, basic parts of life, which is no more positive than pretending you’re living it up every day.

 

Living the unfiltered life

I’m not defined by my lunch that took two minutes to prepare and looks like the dog had its paw in it, or by the fact that most days, I’m doing the same things at the same time. Yet that’s how BeReal threatens to portray me. Less “real” social networks take you away from the crushing sameness of the life shown on BeReal, and outside the feed of pithy comments and carefully edited photos, they can be filled with hopes, aspirations, motivation, and encouragement.

 

Surrounding yourself with people who inspire is just as critical to building confidence as it is to avoid the unrealistic portrayals of life we can see online. I have yet to be inspired by BeReal, but people who I’ve never met in real life can inspire me, make me laugh, or help alleviate my boredom on Twitter every day.

 

I risk being portrayed as painfully ordinary, and while it may be true, I don’t accept it as a step forward.

 

I went to BeReal because, rightly or wrongly, I hoped to find a happy place that embraced the people who we really are, which would in turn encourage us to interact in a pleasant, understanding, and human way. Perhaps it would do that when you have a large circle of friends using the app, or if I really worked to overcome the app’s awkwardness, or it’ll happen in time. But sadly, until then, I risk being portrayed as painfully ordinary, and while it may be true, I don’t accept it as a step forward.

 

Social apps not so obsessed with reality have their own problems, but used sensibly, they can accurately reflect your personality and portray the “real” you, even when it’s not in line with your “real” life. For this reason, I’ll go back to good old fake social media because at least the person shown there is far closer to who I am, even if the life portrayed isn’t always factually correct.

 

 

Supporting document 5 - Survey to user

Source - own creation

Date - March 1st, 2023

Summary - a survey done by me and answered by BeReal's target market, an audience from 12 to 25 years old. The questions range from easy ones such as their age or if they are users of BeReal, to more complicated ones such as their opinion on the lack of ads, proposals for improvement, and to what extent they follow the rules of the app.