No matter what you do in life you are going to get criticized, especially as teenagers. While you are in highschool, you not only have internal pressures, but you have the pressures of school, social media, peers and parents. With all of these pressures, pushing you in different directions, it’s hard to do what you truly want without getting criticized. Even the smallest things you do can be criticized very easily: wearing a new outfit, liking certain foods, existing in your own body, or posting a photo online.

With the increase in popularity of being organic, BeReal has taken the forefront of teens’ use of social media. The app has one purpose: to be real with your friends. 

We wondered, can the social media app BeReal be authentic and still be successful? Our answer to that is no. Everything that is posted online is curated. Whether that curation is being done with filters on Instagram, Snapchat, or even on BeReal with angles and timing, nothing is truly authentic. One of these reasons for people to curate their content is the criticism we receive from almost anywhere we look. 

With our society today no one is truly their real self and you can’t even blame them. No matter what you do or wear you will never live up to everyone’s standards and that’s completely fine. Our society needs to move past this time period of trying to be perfect and start doing what matters to them. So next time you see someone doing something you don’t like but isn’t actually hurting anyone, stay quiet and think about why you are even judging them to begin with? More than likely it is because of what modern society has embedded into your brain. You have probably changed in some way to avoid getting criticized by the public. We as humans have grown accustomed to fearing criticism and that needs to change. Criticism will never stop, so take it with a grain of salt, move on, and  #BeReal.