Are You For Real? Staffers debate whether to “be real” or “be fake” on the popular app, BeReal

BeFake – Maggie Condon

I can already picture it: it’s the middle of winter and I’m surrounded by unfinished math homework in an unmade bed, with clothes that need to be put away or laundry that I haven’t done yet, and no motivation to do it. 

My phone lights up: “Time to BeReal. 2 minutes left to capture a BeReal and see what your friends are up to!” 

There’s no way I’m posting myself like this.

Instead, I’ll open the app and click on the icon in the top right corner to “View all my Memories” to reminisce about the sunnier days, before the seasonal depression had kicked in. 

I couldn’t tell you what I was doing on June 8, but BeReal is able to remind me that I was squished in between friends in a hammock, a memory otherwise forgotten. 

I’m so happy I waited to do my BeReal instead of doing it as I was walking out of my front door. 

This way I’ll always have a memento of the prime summer night.

And thank goodness for myself six months ago for using BeReal as a time capsule of moments I knew I wouldn’t want to forget — capturing my favorite part of each day. BeReal should be used to encapsulate the most memorable, fun or interesting part of the day, not me in my sweats working on my endless pile of chemistry homework at my desk. Someone could say this makes me fake — defeating the initial purpose of BeReal — but it gives me something to look back on.

Sometimes I scroll to mid-May to see a picture from when my team won the lacrosse championship. Then I look at the Lumineers concert or a selfie in the Badlands of South Dakota.  

Then I scroll some more to the BeReal from July when I’m standing in the glass box on the 103rd floor of the Sears tower in Chicago. The notification informing me I had two minutes to “BeReal” may have gone off hours before, but I wanted to share and remember a fun part of the trip — not sitting in my car on the eight-hour drive there. 

Many use the app to truly “be real,” but others use it to show the most memorable part of their day. Some would say that it goes against the point of the app, but like any social media, it’s really up to the user. 

BeReal – Ben Bradley

“One of your friends posted” is the notification dominating everyone’s lock screen from the social media app BeReal. I quickly become annoyed with myself thinking that I missed the BeReal for that day — until I go onto the app and see that someone has posted 20 hours late. 

When I first downloaded the app in March of 2022, I didn’t quite understand the hype. Why do these screen freaks care to see a selfie of myself? Now I find myself frantically rushing to take a selfie whenever I get a notification that there are two minutes left to post the BeReal. Although the concept still baffles me, nothing perplexes me more than the person who can walk around confidently after posting 20 hours late. 

Posting on time has become a point of pride for me, unlike those who reserve the BeReal for the one moment in their day that they aren’t lying in bed. Don’t lie to me, it’s almost a proven fact at this point that if you post anywhere over five hours late to the BeReal, you are a boring person. You can’t hide from the BeReal, and you can’t hide from the truth. 

The app is called BeReal for a reason, you are supposed to upload your photo in real time. While I have had some embarrassing BeReal moments like right when I get out of the shower or using the bathroom, I’ve never found a justification for waiting. 

Posting embarrassing moments is what makes the app unique. I automatically assume that you have something to hide if you aren’t okay with showing your true self. Show me the pictures of you with a double chin. Show me the moments when you are staring at the ceiling. Do not show me when you and your “bestie” watching a movie that was most definitely paused to get an aesthetic photo.  

Waiting to post until you’re at a party or concert is what Snapchat and Instagram are for. BeReal is not the app for looking cool, it’s for being real. I will physically throw up on my phone if I see one more person putting a picture up of someone that has a timestamp of 13 hours late. 

Although I may not always post right on time, I would rather not take a BeReal at all than take it 23 hours late. I hold myself to not being fake in real life so why would I be fake on the app? If you always take a BeFake, then why even have BeReal at all?