The jaguar jungle gets real with new app BeReal

by Lauren Dame, Video Editor

and Jessica Cline, Staff Writer

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

It’s “Time to BeReal!” The relatively new social media app,“BeReal” allows people to share what they’re doing all at the same time. As students settle into the school year, they are beginning to share their school days on the app.

Jessica Cline (12) posts her BeReal in a classroom with Tabby Dos Santos (11). Photo by Jessica Cline (12).

Choir director Ms. Schott describes the app perfectly saying “BeReal is an app that once a day goes off and you have to take a picture with your front camera and back camera at the same time.” Every BeReal user gets the notification to take their BeReal at the exact same time, and they have two minutes to be on time to upload their post, which is right when they get the notification saying “Time to BeReal.” The notification can go off as early as 8:00 am and as late as 11:55pm.

The real aspect of BeReal is something that users go to great lengths to avoid. No one wants to post their BeReal when they’re at home in bed, so oftentimes users post late, which is revealed by the app and even notifies followers. Noha Abu (11) shares, “I’ve learned to always be on time. Sometimes I am late, though.” She keeps it honest when she reveals that “half of [my BeReals] within the month are in bed or I had just woken up from a nap.”

Does BeReal have to be a competition of who is most productive? Jasmine Meyers (11) adds that the point of the app is to be on time each day. “It makes you be real.. It's not fake.” The point of the app is to be on time, so Abu and Meyers are doing it right!

Hanan Darwish (12) holds her phone showing the alert from the BeReal app. Photo by Lauren Dame (12).

Contrary to social media apps like Instagram and TikTok, BeReal does exactly that- keeps it real. Yearbook editor-in-chief Hanan Darwish (12) says, “I think BeReal is really spontaneous and it makes people take a picture that they wouldn’t normally post on social media.” Both a fun and less toxic form of media, the app could even be described as healthy.

As kids are at school for many hours of the day, the BeReal notification goes off very frequently during school hours. Many wonder if this is another distracting social media app to get teenagers back on their phones and off of schoolwork. English teacher Miss Wulff believes it does get in the way of learning “because kids stop in the middle of class and they’re like ‘Miss Wulff can we do our BeReal? Can we do our BeReal?’ and I’m like oh! No…?” When one student posts their BeReal, who knows how many other students will want to post theirs as well.

With luckier timing, however, there are less distractions. Schott mentions that “[BeReal] can [get in the way of learning], yeah, because it could go off during the school day, but I feel like most of them have happened in the afternoons so it hasn’t been an issue.” Junior Rutbah Kamal is less relieved about the timing of the notification and says she is late “probably most days.” She is sure to add that she is a proud “BeFaker.”Integrity is important even when you’re late to posting!

With its rapidly increasing popularity, is BeReal here to stay or is it simply just trendy and to be forgotten in a year? This is a difficult prediction, however, it is certain that the app can be seen as both a light and fun way of interacting and keeping it authentic and a way for students to turn away from their work for minutes at a time. A big hope is to keep the app positive in the Jaguar Jungle.