Grace Tamborella dives in to how Simmons students feel about BeReal.

Students at Simmons are beginning to indulge in a new social media, BeReal.This unique platform prides itself on being different from your typical social media. 

At a different time each day, BeReal users are notified simultaneously to share a photo within two minutes. The idea is to show the real you, without filters or edits. The app uses realmojis instead of likes. Users get to react with a photo of themselves on their friends’ posts. BeReal was developed in December 2019 by Alexis Barreyat, a former video producer with GoPro and Kévin Perreau. 

Julia Wilen, class of 2024, said she likes the relaxed nature of the app.  “Because people are just taking a picture of whatever they’re doing, it makes it way more casual,” said Wilen. Jamie Perkins, class of 2024, said “I like that it is in the moment and that you can see everything that your friends are doing right then.”

Users can ignore the notification and post their BeReal late, but their friends will receive a notification saying that the specific user ‘posted a late BeReal’. Users also cannot view their friends’ BeReals until they post one. 

“I think a lot of the times I wish that it [the BeReal notification] had gone off twenty minutes earlier when I was hanging out with my friends,” said Summer Prentiss, class of 2024. “But I found that I look forward to doing it every day, so if it doesn’t happen when I’m doing the most exciting thing in my day, I’ll still post because that’s what the purpose of the app is.” 

The app is becoming a new trend among young adults. “I got all of my friends from home to download it,” said Wilen. She added, “it feels like there’s more connection than something like Instagram, where you just post when you get enough good pictures.” CNN reports that the app’s active monthly users have jumped by 315% this year.