What You Should Know About the BeReal App

Being a mom is so hard! We have to be up to date on all the latest trends so that we can parent through them. I’ve been hearing about the BeReal app for awhile now and I first saw it in action this summer. I was with my family when I heard my niece say, “Oh, It’s time to be real!” She snapped a video/picture and uploaded it. I was intrigued about this app and decided to find out more. Right now it is coming in as the 10th most popular social media app in the United States.

About the App

BeReal is finding its niche with younger users who are tired of the highly-filtered look of Instagram, or the shiny tiktok world that’s built around rehearsed dances and setting life’s moments to the greatest hits of all time. Instead BeReal encourages people to share a 2-minute video at a specific time of day. The general idea is this: Just imagine if right now your phone or computer camera went live and you shared 2 minutes of whatever was on your mind. You don’t have time to control the background, to fix your hair, to be perfect or scripted, you just share a quick video voicemail with your friends. The imperfections are a big part of the draw for people who love it.

What Users Like

It rebels against perfection and the ways other social media channels appear very rehearsed
It tries to minimize the parts of social media that are toxic.

It is Still Social Media

While BeReal steps away from some of the worst parts of social media such as tracking likes and followers, it is still social media:

There is a public feed where you can scroll and see the content of strangers
images are being sent to peers through the internet (and there’s no filter for what images might be arriving)
It sends you notifications when posts go live, sends a “shame on you” post to viewers if you’re late on a post, and it builds anxiety and tension around the spontaneity of live videos–so you’re always waiting for another video to go live because you don’t want to miss it.
The user settings default is to turn on your geo-location to ON. Not great.

The general idea is to make social media social again. While I like that, I am concerned over the part of it that can grab hold of our kids and make them feel unworthy if they don’t get their video there on time. My goal is to make sure my kids don’t have any parts of their self-esteem or self-worth tied into social media.

While I can’t advise on if you should allow your kids to use this app, my personal way of thinking is to keep them off social media as long as possible. You know your child best and what they can and can’t handle. There are things that simply won’t be healthy for some kids to consume.

I ran across a news article the other day from Protect Young Eyes and it was sharing that for the first time ever, a coroner had concluded that social media actually contributed to the death of a child. I don’t share this with you to scare you. I do share this with you to remind you that as moms we have such an important job when it comes to technology. We can’t hide our heads in the sand just because it is overwhelming. Believe me it is overwhelming!

Do You Need Help In This Area?

If you need help in the area of technology and how to make the best decision in your house, I want to introduce you to my friends at Gospel Tech. Not only do they break down technology and ways you can make it safe, but they do it with the Gospel in mind. What will help bring our children closer to the purpose God has in mind for them?

Have your kids been trying this app yet? What is your experience?