Day One: This is Stupid
What is BeReal? This was my first thought when someone in my EC&I 831 class typed it into the class chat. I had never heard of it, granted, I’ve been on medical and maternity leave now for 6 months and it’s my students that typically keep me “cool” and in the loop on the latest developments. They also feel the need to tell me when fashion trends change and if I need to update my look… because they care?
Our latest Networked Learning Task is to dive into learning a new social media tool so I decided to jump right in. No pre-reading on how to use it or what to do. All I read was that users are sent a notification each day at a random time and they have 2 minutes to snap a photo or video of what they’re doing in REAL time. So, there will not be a lot of links in this initial post as I’m discovering it organically today. Links will be provided in future posts after further use and research.
click the photo to check out their app
My initial thought: this sounds stupid.
My secondary thought: let’s give it an opportunity to prove me wrong.
I downloaded the app. Registered for an account. Synced my contacts to my friends list (turns out my circle hasn’t quite picked up the trend yet so my friend list is 4 people long thus far), and waited for my first instruction.
It asked me to take a snapshot of my surroundings and then once I was done it told me to smile and not move. This resulted in an incredibly unflattering photo of myself. All the while there’s a clock counting down the 2 minutes. I’ve never felt such pressure before from a social app!
Turns out I thought that was it and forgot to hit the final button to share that snapshot and it resulted in me being “late” and not uploading within the 2-minute time frame. For this, I was penalized my second opportunity to BeReal that day. If you make it in time you’re allotted a second chance to BeReal within the same 24 hours. So, on my first day of using the new BeReal app… I was tardy and consequences were handed out.
My thoughts after the initial utilization of the app: this is stupid.
50 minutes later, my phone pinged with a BeReal notification and my body surged with intrigue! Had the app changed its mind and I was being given a second opportunity?
No.
A friend had uploaded her snapshot of being in her car with 2 friends.
My thoughts: umm… cool. This is stupid.
Now what? Then I noticed the “Discovery” option at the top.
Click.
A bunch of random people from around the world who have the app and their daily uploads.
Boring.
So, in conclusion to day one of using BeReal:
I’m not cool enough to know people who are using it. You can find me on it as Kolt’s mom.
I’m bored with the app. It seems to attract mundane and useless contact much like the beginning wall posts in the early days of Facebook.
So, it’s like worldwide Snapchat?
Is it safe? Is this a way for people to see where you are and what you’re doing at any point in the day? Have we not learned our lesson from the Bling Ring crimes?