Popular camera app takes campus by storm

Two minutes, two pictures, once a day, 21.6 million people around the world wait for that *ding* to alert them the timer has begun. A reminder to snap a shot of what they’re up to and take their daily BeReal. 

 The app gained popularity over the summer of 2022 and is still climbing in popularity. Created in 2020, the app now has about 21.6 million users with 74.5% of those users gained in 2022. 

The premise is simple. When the notification goes off, you have two minutes to take a picture with both your front and back camera. If you don’t make it in time, your BeReal is considered late. However, there is a catch. You can’t see your friend’s pictures until you take yours.

“It’s a form of social media that captures live moments. It’s unfiltered.”

Ava Friedling
12

 Even though it may just be one random time in a day, Bearcats know how to make it fun. When the timers go off, Bearcats like to take large group photos with their friends and ask random people such as teachers, coaches, parents, or fellow students to snap their photos.  

 Since the purpose of the app to “be real”, it is changing they ways of social media. Different from other social media platforms, there are no likes, views, or filters. “It makes it seem like life rather than a planned photo,” Friedling said. 

  This leaves less room for the perfect, planned, edited instagram photos and more room for the fun, spontaneous, real photos. Although there are few ways to interact with others’ posts, BeReal has unique way of spreading the love. Instead of likes, users can “react” with a small picture of themselves reacting to the photo. 

  It’s easy to keep the app interesting when the timer goes off at any moment. “You never know what you’re going to do or where you’re going to be, so that makes it fun,” Friedling said, who has been using be real since June 2022. 

  With BeReal still on the rise, it is sure to reach more students lives at PRHS. 

Q:Why do you think BeReal is becoming so popular?

A: I think that it is popular because we like to see what everyone is doing outside of school and what we don’t usually see. 

Q: Do you have a specific fun memory about a certain BeReal you took?

A: One of my favorite BeReals was when I was at a waterpolo tournament and our whole team went into Target and we put on funny hats and glasses for the BeReal