The Anti-Instagram App Promising to Make Us Feel Good

BeReal isn’t just a photo-sharing app — “it’s life, Real life,” the company says. The buzzy social-media app du jour is “authentic, spontaneous, and candid” and aims to “make people feel good about themselves and their lives” and say good-bye to “addictive social networks.” In other words: the answer to all our social-media prayers.

It’s free to anyone with a smartphone — though it’s still in its start-up phase, so some sort of monetization is presumably coming — and it’s so embedded into the daily life of its users that even if you’re not on BeReal, you’re hearing about it on TikTok and Twitter. Maybe celebrities are using it, but you wouldn’t know unless you’re friends with them. Even Chipotle (an early TikTok adapter) is on BeReal.

Shocker: The state behind Roe’s likely demise (looking at you, Mississippi) does the least for new parents in need. If you need a laugh right now, this one’s for you. Has Deuxmoi been unmasked at long last? “Something weird” is going on with our universe, NASA says. No kidding. A conservative-media outlet spent thousands of dollars promoting anti–Amber Heard propaganda on social media. Hundreds of thousands of deaths from the pandemic could be prevented with a single behavioral change. A senior prank at a Texas high school got way out of hand this week — forcing the school to cancel classes for the remainder of the school year. It somehow doesn’t surprise us at all to hear that when Eileen Myles isn’t writing, they’re guarding trees. Hope you have a good weekend filled with friends, fun, and Harry Styles’s new album!

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