by Luna Sandoval
Laughter and much chatter among the Ouray High School halls escalate, as students speed their way through the hallways trying to capture their BeReal. A notification gets sent to those app users once every single day at a different time, giving users 2 minutes to snap the perfect shot. The app focuses on capturing one's true self without the ability to photoshop.
BeReal has taken the school by storm as nearly all of the students in the high school have the app. High school students are not alone. Hesitant to ask the question, I wondered aloud if second graders even knew what social media was, and named BeReal. “I have that app on my phone!” exclaimed second grader Avery as she jumped up from her chair.
The app alerts students at any time during the day, sometimes when they are at school. One week, students handed their phones to teachers to take a photo of the students. The app captures photos from both the front camera and the back camera, resulting in hilarious reactions from the teachers.
Of course, with good comes some bad, and apparently not everyone appreciates candid photos taken of them. There is an option on the app to discard the photos taken, and retake to finally post. I mean, when a phone gets shoved up to someone's face, the reaction is usually not the best.
Once the photos are posted, people that are friends on the app can react with a photo of themselves and even comment. “It is like scrolling through snapchat, but you can only take and post the photos once a day,” said senior Anna Krickbaum. Everything gets deleted when the next notification gets sent out and the whole process is done again. Personal photos can be saved and only available to the person that took them.
Most social media is almost like putting on a show as it has been taken over by unrealistic expectations. Posts are either heavily photoshopped or set up just for the picture. Things influencers post are not raw and heavily affect those who struggle with accepting themselves.
Removing filters and editing from a social media app, as BeReal does, may be out of the norm, but “you can see people in their true form and actually doing real activities” added Anna. “That is the type of thing that should be creating social media, the real stuff,” she continued.
Posting a photo without editing seems to some almost wrong, as almost all social media apps come with the option. Whether it be the lighting or the angle that is being adjusted, pictures are carefully studied for any flaws before making their way to the internet.
“There are a lot of things I do with my photos,” said Senior Clifford Utech, who has been involved with photography for a little over 4 years. Clifford uses photoshop to “dodge and burn, mess with exposure, shadows, and highlights,” to bring more color and take some out. He values Instagram for posting this kind of photography.
Still, he values an app where beauty is not the point. “BeReal does not have any post processing options,” he said, “and I think that is huge with encouraging people to just be themselves.”