The soundtrack to my holiday in Corfu consisted mainly of the gentle buzz of cicadas, the lapping sounds of a waterfall pool and the clink of ice cubes in a glass of rosé. Until the daily clarion call, ‘It’s time to BeReal!’, came thundering through from my partner’s nieces, who aged 19, 21 and 24, sit firmly in the Gen-Z cohort. I therefore used this opportunity to shamelessly glean Gen-Z goss for the purpose of this column. A few of my friends had started venturing on to BeReal, currently the fastest-growing social media app (ranked No 1 in the UK, US and Australia in August) but I hadn’t seen it in action IRL.
The premise? Every day at a random time, you’re told it’s time to ‘BeReal’, punctuated by a yellow caution emoji and you have two minutes to post one selfie and one outward facing image, composited into a sort of FaceTime screenshot of what is supposed to be a candid, un-edited mundane snapshot. Post outside of that two-minute window at your peril as your verified BeReal friendship group ponders the precise authenticity of your belated BeReal. I’m told if you’re on the toilet or mid-coitus, you may be excused.
