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Pop Culture

BeReal app's meteoric rise signals a sea change in what people want from social media

One post a day, no filters and no DMs. Young people are flocking to it.

BeReal photos, vacuum, orange cat
BeReal screenshots shared anonymously with user permission

BeReal offers a stark contrast to traditional social media.

My friend and I were hiking along a beautiful coastal trail when her phone chimed. "Oh, time for my BeReal!" she exclaimed. She pulled her phone from her fanny pack, snapped a photo of our ocean view, then beckoned me for a quick selfie with her. A few seconds later, she put her phone away.

I had no idea what had just happened.

As she explained what BeReal was, my first reaction was, "Great. Another social media app. Just what the world needs." She described it as being a more genuine version of Instagram, but I didn't get the appeal.

Then I saw my teen and young adult kids using it. Then I downloaded it myself. Then I got it.


The beauty of BeReal is in its limitations. You can only post one time per day. There are no filters. No businesses to follow. No ads or sponsored content. Not even any DMs to slide into. You connect with your friends, and their daily BeReals are all you see in your feed.

A BeReal is simply a two-way photo—a snapshot of whatever the person is doing, wherever they are, and an inset selfie of them while they're doing it. Everyone is prompted to post a BeReal at the same time with a two-minute window, though you can actually post any time after the chime rings. You can't view anyone else's posts until you share yours.

BeReal prompt

BeReal's posting prompt past the two-minute window.

BeReal screenshot shared with user permission

You can add a short caption once it's posted, and your friends can react to your BeReal post with a "RealMoji" (an emoji you make with your own face) or a comment.

That's it. That's the whole app experience. Refreshingly simple.

BeReal

BeReal posts are refreshingly authentic.

BeReal screenshots shared anonymously with user permission

And people have been flocking to it. The app was launched in 2020 and it kicked off 2022 with 920,000 monthly active users. By August, that number had skyrocketed to 73.5 million, according to Business of Apps. As TechCrunch reports, some of that growth was due to intentional, paid promotions among college students, but I've witnessed huge organic growth in my own social circles in the past six months. BeReal has quickly become my teen and young adult kids' and their friends' favorite social media app.

That tracks, since according to Statista, 90% of BeReal users are younger than 35. So what is it about the app that has Millennials and Gen Z so hooked? According to the young people I've spoken to, they like that the photos aren't staged, there's no pressure to post or comment and it's "not addictive." There's no algorithm trying to suck you into whatever it thinks will keep you scrolling, and because people can only post once a day, it's naturally limited in the amount of time you want to spend on it.

It's also just fun to see what people are really up to in their everyday lives, even the mundane stuff. It feels far removed from the filtered, perfectly posed and curated photos people share on other apps, and you don't have to wade through people's political diatribes or sponsored content to use it. Kids can connect with their friends near and far, sharing silly daily life stuff without fretting over "likes" or trolls or other social media drama.

In other words, the kids who grew up with social media are tired of feeling overwhelmed by the over-edited, over-advertised, over-argumentative nature of it. BeReal feels genuine, which is exactly what its creators, French entrepreneurs Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau, intended.

The big question is whether or not the app will be sustainable as it is in the long run. Barreyat and Perreau have managed to avoid media interviews, so it's hard to know what their plans are for the future. There has been some buzz about adding some paid features rather than relying on advertising, so we'll see. But in the meantime, it's a lovely respite from the fray and a brilliant way to keep young people connected online without the pitfalls of traditional social media.

Planet

Easy (and free!) ways to save the ocean

The ocean is the heart of our planet. It needs our help to be healthy.

Ocean Wise

Volunteers at a local shoreline cleanup

True

The ocean covers over 71% of the Earth’s surface and serves as our planet’s heart. Ocean currents circulate vital heat, moisture, and nutrients around the globe to influence and regulate our climate, similar to the human circulatory system. Cool, right?

Our ocean systems provide us with everything from fresh oxygen to fresh food. We need it to survive and thrive—and when the ocean struggles to function healthfully, the whole world is affected.

Pollution, overfishing, and climate change are the three biggest challenges preventing the ocean from doing its job, and it needs our help now more than ever. Humans created the problem; now humans are responsible for solving it.

#BeOceanWise is a global rallying cry to do what you can for the ocean, because we need the ocean and the ocean needs us. If you’re wondering how—or if—you can make a difference, the answer is a resounding YES. There are a myriad of ways you can help, even if you don’t live near a body of water. For example, you can focus on reducing the amount of plastic you purchase for yourself or your family.

Another easy way to help clean up our oceans is to be aware of what’s known as the “dirty dozen.” Every year, scientists release an updated list of the most-found litter scattered along shorelines. The biggest culprit? Single-use beverage and food items such as foam cups, straws, bottle caps, and cigarette butts. If you can’t cut single-use plastic out of your life completely, we understand. Just make sure to correctly recycle plastic when you are finished using it. A staggering 3 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans annually. Imagine the difference we could make if everyone recycled!

The 2022 "Dirty Dozen" ListOcean Wise

If you live near a shoreline, help clean it up! Organize or join an effort to take action and make a positive impact in your community alongside your friends, family, or colleagues. You can also tag @oceanwise on social if you spot a beach that needs some love. The location will be added to Ocean Wise’s system so you can submit data on the litter found during future Shoreline Cleanups. This data helps Ocean Wise work with businesses and governments to stop plastic pollution at its source. In Canada, Ocean Wise data helped inform a federal ban on unnecessary single-use plastics. Small but important actions like these greatly help reduce the litter that ends up in our ocean.

Ocean Wise, a conservation organization on a mission to restore and protect our oceans, is focused on empowering and educating everyone from individuals to governments on how to protect our waters. They are making conservation happen through five big initiatives: monitoring and protecting whales, fighting climate change and restoring biodiversity, innovating for a plastic-free ocean, protecting and restoring fish stocks, and finally, educating and empowering youth. The non-profit believes that in order to rebuild a resilient and vibrant ocean within the next ten years, everyone needs to take action.

Become an Ocean Wise ally and share your knowledge with others. The more people who know how badly the ocean needs our help, the better! Now is a great time to commit to being a part of something bigger and get our oceans healthy again.

Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

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Joy

Video of sisters trying to fix a DIY haircut perfectly captures the chaos of sisterhood

“This is THE sisters experience…you captured the whole thing."

@palmview956oficial/TikTok

Sisterhood in a nutshell

Ask any group of sisters what it was like growing up with each other, and they will undoubtedly use the word chaos. Girlhood in itself is a bit of a delightfully feral time. Add yet another wild child (or more) into the mix, and you never know what’s going to happen.

But there’s also a beautiful loyalty. Sure, sisters can turn from friends to enemies on a dime, but in those purer moments, you’ll see them stop at nothing to help one another.

And it’s all these aspects, and everywhere in between, that were captured in a hilarious TikTok as three sisters banded together to fix a DIY haircut gone wrong…the day before school picture day, no less.
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Sandra Maria/Youtube, Official Lives & Music Videos/Youtube

You can't not sing this song.

The music of Queen has a profound visceral effect on everyone. Few pieces of art can cause complete strangers to put aside their differences and come together in song, but by golly, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so absolutely beautiful.

This pertains even to non-English-speaking countries, it appears. Recently, thousands of Harry Styles concertgoers in Warsaw, Poland, began cheering as those iconic beginning piano notes penetrated the air.
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Joy

Mom tells wild story of how her daughter kidnapped a 'chocolate baby' while out grocery shopping

People have a sneaking suspicion that the little girl has seen 'Corina, Corina' one too many times.

Mom shares wild story of how her daughter kidnapped a baby

Sometimes we hear a story that makes us collectively confused. Should we be offended? Laugh? Donate to a parents future bail fund for their children? It's really a toss up but the consensus on this mom's eyebrow raising story is that laughter and bail money are both appropriate responses.

Maranda Arbogast, a mom that runs the TikTok page, momma.chaos, shared a hilariously mortifying story of a time she took her three daughters grocery shopping and somehow wound up in a, "one of these things is not like the others" moment. The mom of three leads into the story by explaining that she is raising children that will likely have run ins with the law.

"Some families gotta save money for medical expenses or college funds. We gotta save money for bail because we are raising criminals, especially my middle daughter. It's always the middle child," Arbogast jokes. "She's gotta be frisked before we leave anywhere."

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@hannahjeanrn/TikTok

What a unique bonding experience

Period simulators gave cis-gendered men a painful glimpse of what women go through on a monthly basis. But what about going through life with an actual human growing in their belly?

That’s where the watermelon challenge comes in.

TikTok’s watermelon challenge is a simple concept, where dads-to-be strap watermelons, weighing somewhere around 14 pounds, onto their bellies in order to simulate what it’s like for pregnant moms. Bonus point for taping mangos onto the chest because #lactation.

The results are both hilarious and illuminating.

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Author Mark Tyler Nobleman and Batman and Robin.

Over the past few years, "Don't Say Gay" bills have been introduced across the U.S., sparking widespread controversy about how LGBTQ issues should be addressed in schools. Supporters argue they protect children from inappropriate content by restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in educational settings.

Opponents believe these bills marginalize LGBTQ individuals by fostering stigma and potentially infringing on teachers' ability to openly address students' questions or experiences.

Currently, 11 states have banned LGBTQ discussion in public schools, and 5 require parental consent.

Author and comic book expert Marc Tyler Nobleman recently found himself at the center of the controversy, and his simple rationale for using the word “gay” in his school presentations presents an age-appropriate and inclusive way to approach at the issue.

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