With the rise of social media during the last decade, there has been a common theme of the negative effects it has had on teenagers. Especially during high school, there has been pressure to always to look good and put your best self forward when presenting yourself on social media. While posting yourself on social media, people in high school are known to post the “fake” version of themself. They will use apps to edit themselves or use filters to make their life look perfect. There is an unhealthy comparison between peers at school which is known to lead to a big amount of pressure. 

On apps like  Instagram, VSCO and Twitter the more likes, or comments you have the more valuable a teen can feel. According to ScienceDaily, around 90 percent of people who post on social media report using a filter or editing their photos before posting them. Specifically, girls will tend to fix their skin tone, face shape, or body shape to post what they think is the best version of themselves.  Due to studies, the more edited a photo is the more a person thinks they will get more likes. 

This past summer, the new viral app, BeReal, has become a popular activity among teenagers from middle school all the way to college. BeReal is a photo-sharing app that happens once a day. When the “BeReal notification” comes out, a person has two minutes to capture what they are doing. They can react to the notification by taking a picture with their front and back camera. If you do not post in the two minutes a person will be classified as “posting late” and will notify all their friends on the app. The app was initially created to capture real-life moments and to see what your friends are doing at a specific moment. People also have the option to react to BeReals with different emojis and instant reactions. While this app has become popular with teens, people are starting to see the fake facade that comes along with social media. People with the app have started just to post during the most appealing part of the day. The idea of only posting your best self on social media has been shown through this app. The majority of the people on the app post late because the moment when the notification comes out is not the best time to post for them. 

Students who feel they need to post their best selves on social media should start to look at the data that shows not all photos are natural. When comparing yourself to others, there is a further step that is taken that many people use to post the “best” version of themselves. It is important to know that social media is not a hundred percent real and there is a lot more that happens behind the scenes of a post.