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If you’re like me, and a lot of other people, you kind of hate social media.
Yes, it’s convenient for organizing events; I love seeing pictures of my friends and their kids; and it comes in handy when I need ideas for recipes and projects.
But the cons of social media all but outweigh the pros. It’s an enormous time suck, deliberately designed to steal your attention. And people feel incredibly comfortable being extremely nasty from behind a screen, saying things to each other that they’d never be rude enough to say in person.
Considering that social media often turns into an absolute dumpster fire, why even have these apps at all? If you find yourself wondering that, let me introduce you to the best social media app out there: BeReal.
BeReal solves all the things that you hate about social media (yes, really!) and gets to the heart of what we love about social media: real, meaningful connection. No wonder it’s becoming incredibly popular.
So what is BeReal, exactly? Here’s an explanation from Time:
Every user gets a daily notification alerting them that they have two minutes to click a button within the app to simultaneously take a photo with their phone’s front and back cameras and then share the resulting post to a feed that can only be seen by their mutual friends. The app doesn’t allow for any editing, and if you miss the two-minute window, your post will be labeled as late. You also can’t view any of your friends’ posts until you’ve shared your own, a feature that’s intended to prevent “lurking.”
I found out about BeReal from my teenage sister, and after a few nudges, I agreed to download it and give it a try. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now, and I really think it eliminates all the problems we see in other social media apps. Here’s why I love it so much.
1It doesn’t steal my time and attention
Most social media apps are designed to keep you endlessly scrolling. The Facebook news feed, Instagram reels, all of TikTok … the goal is to suck up as much of your time and attention as possible.
BeReal is the exact opposite. There are no influencers, no reels, no videos, no ads. The only photos you can see are those of your real-life friends who you’ve added. And since the photos delete after 24 hours, you can’t even go back through your or your friends’ history to see old photos.
So for example, if I have 10 friends on BeReal, there are 10 photos to look at each day. And that’s it. There is absolutely nothing else to see.
Every day, I open the app, look at my friends’ photos for a minute or two, maybe comment on something, and then close the app. And that’s that. There is no compulsion to check it again that day. It takes up about 2 minutes of my day and doesn’t suck up any additional time.
2It brings real connection
The thing that really blows my mind about BeReal? I spend so much less time on it than on Facebook or Instagram, but feel a much more authentic connection with my friends from using it than from using any other app.
I love seeing photos of what my friends are really doing, not just the curated Instagram highlight reel. BeReal shows me that my friend in Hawaii is sitting with her son on their lanai patio after school, my friend in North Carolina is building LEGO with her kids, and my teenage sister is sitting outside to catch up on homework. I feel like I have a real window into their normal everyday lives, and I enjoy it so much.
And because there are no filters or editing available on the app, everything feels so authentic. My friends and I often pull silly faces in our photos, knowing that no one is seeing it but each other.
3It’s really fun!
I have to say, I’m not the only one who enjoys BeReal. My young kids love it! When the daily notification pops up to post our BeReal, they all come running to make silly faces for the photo. And then they love to see the photos of what our friends are doing in other parts of the world.
We are just enjoying the heck out of this simple little app. To me, it solves all of the problems that come with social media, and brings it back to what it’s supposed to be all about, which is meaningful and fun connection with real friends.
I hope you check it out, too! I’m willing to bet you will enjoy it so much.
And today we celebrate...