Speaking of: BeReal

There's this new social media app called BeReal that is starting to get some traction among young people. Rather than post content of your choosing at your own cadence like with a conventional social media app, users in BeReal are sent a notification at a random time of day alerting them to take a picture of what they are currently doing. The user then has two minutes to take this photo, which immediately gets posted on that user's feed and shown to their followers similar to Instagram.

I first heard about this a few weeks ago and was immediately intrigued by the idea. A platform that celebrates everyday moments rather than filtered highlights is definitely an interesting fresh take on social media, and keeping the cadence at once-a-day is trendy (see "Wordle" or "1 Second Everyday"). It seemed like a fun idea at first. And then I realized.

I don't really care what my friends are doing at 3 pm on a Tuesday.

Instagram's most toxic trait — the fact that everyone only reveals the coolest parts of their life on Instagram — is also what I'm realizing I like best about it. Because at least I get to see the coolest parts of my friends' lives. BeReal cures this toxicity but with the side effect of curating a feed of random Euphoria scenes and half-eaten tuna sandwiches. It's the same reason I don't text people "What's up?" in the middle of the day just to chat. I really don't care what they're up to.

So if I had to choose between seeing a photo from my friend's amazing Spring Break trip to Belize on Instagram or a photo of my friend chopping peppers for dinner on BeReal, I'd probably take Belize. Call me toxic. But I find it more interesting.