Blog Post #4 - Evan Davidson
Hello Everyone,
following the midterm, I will be discussing the social media app BeReal. BeReal is a platform that emphasizes personal authenticity, which is something that is lacking with other social media platforms such as Instagram. Additionally, the app allows for your photos to only be viewed by your friends, which is usually a far smaller number than the amount of followers you may have on other platforms due to the intimacy BeReal provides. This relates to Dunbar's number, which states that the social network of humans averages 150 people, consisting of close friends and good friends. By having closer friends on BeReal, you can express yourself in a more authentic way as you do not need to worry about the idea of being a social media star and representing yourself in front of others that you may not know on a personal level.
I completely agree! Due to the intimate nature of BeReal, people tend to have less followers and request to befriend less than people than they would normally on other social media apps such as snapchat and instagram. On most social media platforms it is not abnormal to follow a bunch of people you don't know. However, on BeReal this is uncommon and could feel invasive as users are posting intimate pictures showcasing their daily lives that they wouldn’t normally post to a large audience. In this sense, BeReal aligns with the concept of the social brain and grooming behaviour in primates as people choose a select group of people out of all of their other followers on other social media platforms to be friend on BeReal.
ReplyDeleteYou raise some really good points in your post! I completely agree with you on the fact that BeReal is a more intimate social media environment especially compared to other dominant platform's. The Dunbar number reflects this limited social circle/brain and is a great way to show how BeReal is limited to a friends level. On a site such as Instagram, followers tend to expand past just friends and involve a lot more acquaintance's and other peers one may not even know outside of online mediums.
ReplyDeleteYour blog post had some excellent points regarding the intimate aspect of BeReal. There are different opinions regarding how BeReal fulfills the authentic aspect. BeReal's purpose is to stay connected with close friends, but not everyone follows its intended purpose where people are able to add endless amounts of friends or add contacts on their phones to befriend on BeReal. I agree with your point that BeReal is supposed to be a friendship app, but people misuse the purpose, which contradicts the presence of BeReal's supposed purpose. Overall, I agree that Be Real is not the platform to become a social media star; it can be a valuable platform to show yourself on a different level of authenticity.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you about how BeReal emphasizes personal authenticity that many other social media platforms lack. The idea reflects Dunbar’s number and social brain; rather than having a large following on BeReal, people tend to add their close and good friends on there as it offers a more intimate environment where users show their friends give them more of an insight into their personal life on a daily basis. The platform heavily markets the idea of showing the world the real you where users cannot edit the photo and only have two minutes to take the picture. Nonetheless, I find it interesting to see how users can post whenever they want despite the notification alerting them to post at that moment as well as being able to delete and retake their image, contradicting the purpose of the platform. With that being said, do you think that users would still use BeReal if they were not allowed to delete or retake their post?
Hello,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don't agree with your take on BeReal being authentic, as I believe it is just like the rest of the social media platforms. The developers claim that this app is authentic, but it really isn't. I do agree that it is a little more authentic, but for the most part it is exactly like Instagram. BeReal controls its users with many power affordances. For example, in regards to the interactivity power affordance it makes the user post by sending out a notification to "be real" when they can retake the photo as many times as they want, which defeats the whole purpose of being real and using their original photo. The app also makes users post by only letting them see the other posts if they post themselves. If the user does not post, they cant see the other post's of the people they are following. Being controlling is not authentic. BeReal also allows you to post late and users can choose when they want to "be real" creating a less authentic post than posting at the specific time of the notification. These are only a few examples as the list goes on. Another point is that BeReal actually has a discovery page where they can post publicly if they chose to. This might make people act differently and post different things due to other people seeing the post.
Great post! I completely agree with your argument as it is nearly impossible for users to be entirely transparent on social media. As you related your claim to the Dunbar number, it is interesting to note how one’s is most authentic or real with approximately five people. This insinuates that when people use social media, that it is nearly impossible to be as authentic with an abundance of users in comparison to how someone would act with a few close friends. I agree that BeReal could potentially enable one to represent themselves to a larger audience more authentically. However, I would argue that it also can’t allow one to be fully authentic as it does not provide the user with the various level of social cues to develop emotion as highlighted in Baym’s reading.
ReplyDelete