the art of being real

In today's video, I talk about the art of being real, making Instagram casual (again), and the performative authenticity of BeReal.

~time stamps~
0:00 - intro
3:45 - my experience with BeReal
6:49 - the aesthetic of authenticity
11:02 - the poster's dilemma
13:43 - the future of online authenticity

~sources~
Q&A: Juergen Teller
The Criticism Of Juergen Teller's W Mag Shoot Misses The Point
BeReal Won't Save Us From Ourselves

~socials~

[justinc.]

I don’t think you can make a completely “real” or “authentic” social media app. Social media is inherently manufactured in some way.

[mac]

i tried to do bereal but i slowly started to feel insecure with majority of my days being me laying in bed and id see my friends going out or doing more fun things. i just got the same effect as any other social media but worse. i decided to delete my social media all together and i've never been happier and closer to my friends now. removing that pressure from my life and actually living in the moment can really make a difference.

[Tuvabaluba]

I've had a great experience with BeReal so far - mostly it has made me realize that me and my friends live equally boring lives, and I love that for us

[EBRyan-ritt]

I dont think people want authenticity, they want neutral makeup. They want to be curated enough that they dont hate they way they see themselves but not so curated that it looks staged or artificial to everyone else. Its a weird farce we're all playing with one another for a society that wants to be understood but not seen.

[ava.catherine]

the way that companies always find a way to market everything to us baffles me. the idea that you need to buy and engage with this app to ‘be real’ is beyond ridiculous

[laural]

I actually really like Be Real. I don’t have any other social media (except for youtube) and a few of my friends study out of town, so i like to see what they are doing in their daily lives. It makes me feel connected to them without the anxiety others social media apps cause me. We don’t take it too seriously, most of the times all of us take the picture late and if we don’t feel like it, we simply don’t. For me, it’s just a funny way to keep up with my friends

[khalilahd.]

The way you killed BeReal in 2 minutes is KILLING me 😭 it’s a great concept but it’s not something that can withstand time in my opinion

[paupowpow]

"as soon as you are posting to >10 people, it's a stage and not an authentic conversation anymore" wow, yes! 100% agree

[sapphiredrops]

Also… can we talk about how BeReal basically captures you at the places you visit every week, so basically great material for being stalked…?

[ers]

I mainly do BeReal for myself because I always wished I had pictures of myself to look back on like a lot of other people do, but I just never really took pictures, so I like how it gives me an incentive to do that. Capturing the parts of my day that are boring is nice because I know I’ll probably forget those in the future so it’s just a way I can remember all aspects of what my life used to be like, I already look back at the memories and I’ve only had it for 2 months 😭

[barbaramarina]

people want social media to be fun again, but it became something so anxiety ridden and there's no way of going back. it's performative and it tricks your mind into constantly compare yourself, even unintentionally; I don't think it's ever going to be fun like it once was.

[Amanda-xwrp]

i never downloaded bereal just bc its seems so invasive and weirdly entitled to my life. i also think there’s something ironic about seeing people post their bereals to instagram

[Ejazzz]

I found bereal fun at first but especially after I added people I wasn’t close friends with I started to dislike it and found that I had anxiety at times from it. I don’t like knowing what my friends are doing tbh. I’d rather we intentionally talk to each other rather than passively engage with each other through an app.

[camaro]

I don't think the problem is the app, it's people. I have literally 4 friends on Be real I don't post very often just when i feel like it. I post the most random not important things and I love it. It's the only app i post on. People are so obssesed with being seen, looking cool, portraying a certain image ... That they use Be real in way that completly defeats the purpose of the app

[paigernest]

I deleted bereal the day it went off when I was at the beach, and I retook the picture 7 times because I didn’t like the way my body looked in it. It was literally just instagram all over again.

Also, I felt the same way when I started gaining more bereal friends! I was seeing into the lives of people I didn’t even want to see before.

[StimYuLus]

this was a great deep dive on authenticity and how its evolved on sms over the years- appreciated the mention of teller as well. it really makes u wonder if we’ll keep making new ways to “create” authenticity or we’ll just accept that being on a ‘platform’ naturally leads to performative attitudes

[sapphiredrops]

Social media is what you make it - like if you want to be more authentic on social media, then be more authentic on social media. If you want to see less photoshop on Instagram, then don’t photoshop and don’t follow account which photoshop. Unfollow toxicity

[franticranter]

I will say that whilst it is certainly possible to make your BeReal "nicer" and less authentic, and some do, I have found that, at least so far, most people do use it fairly "authentically", and most people don't jazz it up too much. Like, if I'm just on the sofa doing nothing when my BeReal goes off, I don't feel weird about just doing my BeReal on the sofa like that, whereas I would feel weird just taking a picture of myself on the sofa and putting that on my Instagram story or anything like that. I also don't feel weird when my friends do the same (and a not insignificant proportion of my friends do so), whereas I would if they did that on their insta.

[JessaJayVlogs]

I definitely agree that people want that “effortless” feel in their creator’s posts right now. I think what we’re all actually craving is connection - and when people post relatable content, that feels easier to connect to. But I’ve got to say...there’s just something off about a bunch of people trying really hard to look like they’re not trying.

[yagurlsai]

"social media has democratised the notion of being a celebrity". omg that's the perfect way putting it into words! when Emma chamberlain was saying in her podcast about how she thinks there's a culture shift in main stream celebrities and how we perceive them, I think this is exactly what she meant. just observing celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Bella Hadid (have to admit they're pretty much all in the same social circle since I can't think of any other "celebrities" lmao) its like they're purposefully trying to be more casual/relatable in the way they dress, present themselves etc.