Gen Z Is on a Never-Ending Search for Online Authenticity

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/BeRealDinner was chicken and dumplings at Brown University, and at 5:54 p.m. on a Tuesday in May, the dining hall was silent. Nearly every student had their head buried deep into the latest TikTok tutorial on their feed or the most recent Twitter update on the status of Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson’s then-relationship (simpler times!). But at 5:55 p.m., the cafeteria came alive. It was time to be real.BeReal is a social media app that asks users to post one completely unfiltered, authentic photo of themselves that is prompted by a pop-up notification at a randomly generated time each day. Users have two minutes to show their mutuals what they are doing, where they are, and what they look like in that very moment—completely free from any form of curation.Except, that’s not quite how it works out.Read more at The Daily Beast.