⚠️It's time to BeReal⚠️
⚠️It's time to BeReal⚠️
BE YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF ONLINE!!! 😤
Hello my sweets, how are we doing today? Surviving this literal hellscape of a world?
I figured we could do a little check-in and chat about some social media stuff. Shall we?
Next week I’m off to Lake Tahoe for a girls trip. I feel lucky to still be close to 11 people from college, so close that we’re willing to fly across the country for nearly a week together. If you have any recommendations for this area, send ‘em my way! We’ll also be spending a night in Reno. My knowledge of this city only extends to that of what was on Reno 911, so if there’s anything to check out there please let me know!
Me in Reno for less than 24 hours
And then me in Lake Tahoe
Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated Chromatica Ball kicked off this past Sunday in Düsseldorf, Germany. Did I watch a Twitch live stream of the concert at the bar this weekend? You bet. Do I have understanding friends who tolerate me? Consider me #blessed. Was I absolutely stunned that she opened with Bad Romance? Yes! That rah-rah lady keeps us on her toes (although this fan has an interesting theory as to why she opened with that song).
I’ll be seeing the show next month and cannot wait to reunite with Mother Monster. My vision for my outfit is slowly coming together in my brain. I’m sure it will be a case where it seems like a “slay” in my head, but the execution will be less than stellar and poorly constructed (it will be my LaLa Ri moment). Stay tuned!
Let’s chat about BeReal…
Much like the “Little Miss” memes, the BeReal memes have taken over my Twitter and Instagram feed. And I’m not mad about either! The success of the Little Miss and American Girl Doll memes is that they are so personalized (or at least appear to be, because at the end of the day we all have much of the same sense of humor, wants, needs and interests). “We need an American Girl Doll” who survived the rapture) or “Little Miss Needs her Diet Coke” = immediate reposting. Of course, the shelf-life of a meme doesn’t last for very long, but for now we’re having fun.
It me!
But back to BeReal. If you’re not familiar with the app, it really wants to promote capturing the moment in the now. Each day at an unexpected time, every user will receive a notification simultaneously that it’s time to BeReal. Users then have 2 minutes to photograph what they are doing in that exact moment. The photos last on your feed for about 24 hours, until it’s time to BeReal again the next day. If you miss the 2 minute mark, your post will show that you’re X amount of minutes late. If you do multiple attempts to capture your BeReal, it shows how many photos you took. It also shows if you’ve screenshot someone else’s post. That’s the basic summary of it.
During the week, the feed is typically filled with photos of myself and friends at work, whether that be at the office, the hospital or at home. But it’s fun! I love seeing what my pals are up to! My only gripe with the app is when the BeReal notification doesn’t occur when I’m doing something I consider to be cool. It’s also a fun time when you’re in a public setting and the notification goes off, and suddenly everyone is shouting “IT’S TIME TO BEREAL.” We are all zombies, huh?
My exclusive access to the mind of Gen Z - my teenage cousins - tell me that they feel that BeReal is already on the way out (although it’s just hitting the mainstream now, they’ve probably been at it for months). They can assure me that TikTok is still cool. But because I, a 30-year-old, am now writing about both of these apps, I’m sure I’m making them significantly less in vogue.
I recently attended a virtual social media conference, where I asked the question, “Should brands be on BeReal?” The speaker responded that brands should “watch, wait and listen” to see how users even begin using the app. Rachel Karten, a writer of one of my favorite newsletters Link in Bio, wrote about if and when brands hop onto BeReal. Definitely check out that piece.
To end this week’s newsletter, are some of my favorite BeReal memes below. Talk soon! xo
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