I started using BeReal on May 22, 2023. I have kept my streak alive of posting each day and have only been late with my post a few times. I went from zero friends to now having three friends. I am still not sure if I will continue using BeReal or I will stop. I am still figuring it all out. I think that it has a variety of positive aspects as well as negative aspects.
BeReal is a French social media app that was launched in 2020 by Alexis Barreyat and Kévin Perreau. It has a daily notification in which users are encouraged to take a photo in their surroundings in which they are given a random 2 minute time frame. You are given the chance to post one picture per day and recently if you post within your 2 minute time frame you are able to post 2 additional pictures. Here is a Beginners Guide to using BeReal.
I have asked myself since starting if this is just a new Social Media craze or if it is changing of bad habits that we have formed using Social Media platforms and the use of filters and altering our bodies. I found an article on linkedin.com that helped me to make a few decisions on my own. This article highlights pros, cons and mixed feelings about BeReal. The article brought up many feelings I was already having about this platform. Some of these are as follows:
- the use of both the front and back camera. (Very hard to tell what the one camera is taking a picture of.)
- there is no privacy.
- the public shaming. (When posting late all your friends are given a notification letting you know they posted late.)
- they claim they want people to be real and spend less time with their phone but yet with the random time notification to take a picture it makes people want to be more attached to their phone.
- It is having people want to ensure that they are constantly doing things that others would maybe want to see as who wants to post a boring picture?
- How is the company making their money?
The Terms of Service were fairly easy to read even though they were lengthy. They helped me to understand a bit better where the developers were coming from with their Social Media platform. I did appreciate that at the end there was a space where they gave you a way in which to contact them. It says that your content is for your friends unless you agree to have it shared globally.
At the end of this trial with BeReal I am leaning more towards getting rid of the app as I feel the pressure to post so that I am not being shamed for being late or not posting. I find that as soon as I hear that ding I feel that I need to quickly take a picture so that I can keep up my ‘Streak’ so to speak.
Although I found it fun for a bit it is not an app that I will let become a part of my repertoire. So, in the end I will decide to not BeReal. It was a good way to try out an app and learn in a brief amount of time the pros and cons of it.
On Tuesday night I began embroidering the centerpiece of the handprint blanket for my mom. I began doing the last names of each of my siblings. This took me around 2 hours. I sat and watched my son’s baseball practice and embroidered and had people come over and comment on what a beautiful idea and gift this will be. This warmed my heart to hear. By the time I was done working on embroidering each of the 6 last names my fingers were a little sore. I was happy with the progress that I had made but was also hit by the realization of how much work this project is going to take. It isn’t as simple as I had originally thought but I am happy as I know that the extra work that I am putting into it now will help for this blanket to last a life time.
unfiltered, unedited and show an asterisk if they have been taken more than once. If you chose not to post a picture on a particular day you are unable to look at those pictures in which your friends have taken. Just like Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok and other Social Media you are able to post a reaction to the pictures. If you would like to 
I am the type of person that has a very competitive nature and so when I hear the notification go off I know that I am going to want to get my picture taken quickly so that I do not get a mark of shame. I think that as yes this helps in keeping things real it also isn’t doing a true portrait of ones life. How often do I give myself a time limit when I am taking a picture? I guess that this is a part of keeping things real but I think it is also adding to some of the stress that we find in our youth today. Kids are dealing with anxiety of fitting in, trying to be perfect, getting good grades, being cool, etc. This app helps in adding to those areas of anxiety by putting a time limit on the picture being taken as well as having the app notifying at random times. It keeps an element of surprise but for anyone that deals with anxiety or likes to be very organized this is a difficult concept to not know when the notification might come. 
I sat down and drew up a design for my blanket. The middle section with all the embroidery and handprints will be a 32 X 32-inch square. This will be framed by denim squares. I was planning on using 8 inch squares but might be changing this to 6 inch squares as I was able to find some that were already cut. I began working on my blanket for my mom. I emailed all my siblings and got them to send me the handprints of all of their family members. I am still waiting on a few handprints. I traced all the handprints with fabric markers. Each family got a different color and they were each traced around a heart with the family name in the middle.
