I was listening to a "Land of the Giants" podcast the other day discussing Facebook's ridiculously savvy $1 billion acquisition of Instagram in 2012, and something struck me as funny.
In discussing why Instagram was attractive to Facebook, the reporters noted how Facebook admired Instagram for its more spontaneous approach to photo sharing. The app encouraged users to post photos at spur-of-the-moment times as opposed to Facebook, which had a reputation for feeling more staged and retrospective. In other words, Instagram encouraged people to show their authentic selfs.
This sounds hysterical today in a world where Instagram has built an entire brand around encouraging users to cherry-pick highlights of their lives and share them to people they barely know for a quick endorphin high. It's easy to forget that at one time Instagram really was the "authentic"platform, where people went to share candid snapshots of life in an aesthetically precise square. And it stayed that way for a few years, until the platform grew enough where more eyes were on every post and people started caring more about how they looked on Instagram.
Which is when Snapchat came along. Snapchat encouraged users to send quick, spur-of-the-moment photo messages to their friends, and when you wanted to share candid snapshots of your day-to-day life, you could use the brand new "Stories" feature. And this stayed the general vibe of Snapchat for a few years, until the platform grew large enough where more eyes were on every Story and people started caring more about how they looked on Snapchat.
Which is when BeReal came along.
Clearly this pattern isn't a branding issue but a psychology issue. Whether you name your platform "Instagram" or "BeReal" or "Fugly Fotos" or "Literally Just Feet Pics," it seems virtually impossible for a social media app to sustain a culture centered on sharing your "authentic self." The human species is just too self-conscious for this to work. We're hard-wired to care deeply about what others think of us, and we think our "authentic selves" are fundamentally boring. Success will always be the kiss of death for these companies because once the user base grows large enough, people will start caring more and more about how they present themselves, and the app will lose its authenticity halo.
Before long, BeReal will become SeemReal, and then SeemReal will become NotReal, and then someone else will come along and restart the game. Grab your popcorn and sit back.
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