2 min left to capture a BeReal and see what your friends are up to!
“Hey mom, do you know what BeReal is?” the first child asks.
“Yeah, our friends at school have been talking about it and told us to download it!” the second child says.
The mother immediately stops what she’s doing and looks at her kids with the biggest smile (one may say too big of a smile). She walks over and begins to pull out her phone.
“BeReal!! Oh my goodness, I haven’t heard that in years!!!! How exciting!” she says.
The kids look at one another, confused as to why their mother is this ecstatic. They have never seen their mom like this. She only gets this happy at 7:00pm on the weekdays for Jeopardy. What could bring this much excitement out of her besides Ken Jennings?
“You guys don’t understand, BeReal was the HIGHLIGHT of my day!!” she exclaims.
“Ok, you keep saying that and yet we still don’t know what this Be-Real is” the first child says.
She gives her children an unusual, almost disgusted look at this statement. She realizes her children are now staring.
“Well, BeReal was a popular app when I was your age,” she begins, “And everyday at the same time for everyone, you would get a notification and have to take a photo of what you were doing at that moment!”
“But isn’t taking a picture of what you’re doing at that moment going against being real?” the second child asks.
The mom looks like she has just been shot in the chest.
“Its goal was to be the first type of uncurated social media! Have people show their real selves! How fun!”
“Aren’t you having to stop what you’re doing in that second, essentially stopping the real time moment to then “be real”?”
The mom begins pulling out her phone, scrambling to show her kids the evidence of how amazing this app is. Although there is a great pause as these phones just keep getting more and more complicated these days!
“Ok, looks like my iPhone 25 has access to my old Bereal! Who knew!” she says. “You guys are too young to truly understand the magic of BeReal, let me show you some!”
She pulls out her phone and begins scrolling, one may even say frantically. She is on a mission. She must show her kids how truly life changing BeReal is. She stops scrolling and finds the perfect picture. A blurry selfie taken in college.
“Oh look here you go! Here’s mom and her college friends! Look at how little we were!” she squealed.
The children are not sold.
“So you and your friends were just having fun, living in the moment, and then decided to ruin that moment by capturing that moment? To live in the moment?” the first child says.
The kids look at each other, confused as to why their mother looks like she may start crying. The mother looks back down to her phone, ignoring their comments to continue going down her archive.
“Oh here you go! It’s me and my coworkers at work!” she says.
“You stopped in the middle of work, on the clock to take a selfie? How was that even allowed? The second kid exclaims.
The mother, with a scary look in her eye, begins, “When it said it was time to BeReal, it was time to BeReal. It is sacred. You have to obey the BeReal rules.”
The kids are officially freaked out, they never realized how weird their mother was and this app seems to be bringing out a side of her they have never seen.
“Ummmm, mom?” says the first.
“What is up with you and this app?” follows the second.
The mother, once again ignores them, not letting them ruin her sense of joy from growing up.
“Anyways, let’s find some other ones!” she says as she continues to scroll.
The children are now looking over her shoulder, taking in some of her, questionable, BeReals.
“Oh gross mom, is that you on the toilet? Why would you want people to see that?” the second child says, disgusted.
“BECAUSE IT WAS TIME TO BE REAL!!!” she yells, visibly angry.
The children have never seen their mother like this, how could this stupid app bring out so much emotion out of her? They are officially scared of this “BeReal app.”
“You know what I’m done, you guys can’t appreciate this like I did as a kid…” she snaps.
She shuts the door and leaves, leaving the children with their phones, and BeReal newly installed.
“Well I guess if it says it’s time to BeReal, we should do it right?” the second kid asks.
“I’m scared to see what will happen if we don’t,” the first child answers.
Allie Richter is a Sophomore Psychology major who wants you to get in the BeReal NOW!!!
You can reach them at [email protected].
Art by Miley Charsky.