Welcome to the The Cap – our very own recap series of the topics and trends impacting teens and tweens today dedicated to keeping the common parent in the know.

 

📮 In today's Issue, we cover:

BeReal is a French social media app released in 2020. BeReal’s main feature is a daily notification that encourages users to “be real” by sharing a “real” photo of themselves and their immediate surroundings in a randomly-selected 2 minute window every day. Users then have 2 minutes to post a selfie of themselves and exactly what they are doing. 

 

The goal behind BeReal is to bring authenticity back to social media and it has become a disruptor in the social media landscape by offering an experience other than constant scrolling and annoying advertisements. Instead, BeReal users can only see their friends and can't watch them 24/7 since each BeReal post disappears 24 hours after being uploaded. Photos in BeReal are unfiltered, unedited and given an asterisk* if they were retaken. Photos taken outside of the 2 minute timeframe are even marked with how late they were posted.

BeReal's approach to “authenticity" by asking users to “be real” has skyrocketed its popularity -- especially with Gen Z and younger. The app is aged for users 13 and older.

 

But, despite BeReal’s focus on authenticity and encouraging natural and unedited posting, a pressure to entertain or be doing something ‘cool’ when your notification comes can exist. While a filter-free "real" image is appealing, when that 2 minute notification comes on, stress hormones can kick in along with anxiety around taking a decent photo. There's also the matter of where your teen may be when they receive the notification, whether that be in class, at practice, playing sports, at their job and even in the bathroom or shower.

Although very different from other social media apps and arguably much safer, BeReal still presents the risk of your child posting and viewing inappropriate photos. And there's no way to see or monitor your child's history within the app because photos are automatically deleted after 24 hours. 

 

Also - be aware that Geo-location is turned ON in the BeReal app by default, giving other users a real-time location of your child's whereabouts. Turning off the Geo-location is simple. Tap the location icon at the bottom of the BeReal screen after uploading your photos to turn it off.

From a mental health perspective, BeReal may be a healthier choice since its focus is not likes, shares, and comments and it keeps no number counts or ways to objectively compare one account to another. The app simply aims to make people feel good about themselves and their lives by removing the things we can focus too much on - followers, likes, filters, etc.

 

Teens and tweens are definitely using BeReal. So, have a conversation with your child and set parameters about what's appropriate to post on BeReal, when to skip a BeReal and how much screen time they are having in general.

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