Let’s BeReal.

There’s a new social networking app that a lot of kids are using and it’s called BeReal. So what is it and how can you use it in your library?

BeReal is an app that is available for download across platforms that “show your friends who you really are, for once," by removing filters and opportunities to stage, over-think, or edit photos. Take a look at the rules of BeReal below. *You must have notifications on for this to be successful. Many teens and tweens are over Instagram thanks to the new platform that has ads and suggested accounts all throughout your feed. Maybe BeReal is the next photo sharing app for teens.

The app notifies users at a random time throughout the day that it's "time to Be Real." A two-minute timer starts when the user opens the app, giving them a limited amount of time to take a picture of whatever they're doing at that moment. Be aware! The photo will take a picture of what’s in front of you, as well as a selfie to keep everything 100% authentic to make sure you’re really where you are, doing what you’re doing at the time the notification goes off and that you’re looking exactly how you normally look—no filters!

When you sign up it’s going to almost immediately ask you to take your first BeReal photo. Get ready! You have 2 minutes to complete this activity.

Throughout the day BeReal will send you a notification to post your BeReal photos. You have 2 minutes to complete this, but if you don’t, you can still post your photos. It will just be late and friends will get a notification if you post late, which I’m not the biggest fan of TBH. Be aware: you can only delete your post once a day after you've posted it on your feed. While you can retake your BeReal as many times as you like during the two-minute countdown, once you've pressed "post," you can only delete and retake it once. Don’t try and create content on your own—you won’t be able to. The point of this app isn’t to capture the perfect picture any time you want, but to BE REAL and take a photo in real time of what’s happening in your daily life.

In other social media apps you can react to posts of your friends. It works the same with BeReal, but you can actually selfie the emoji yourself. When I went to heart-eyes emoji a friend’s post it asked me to take a selfie of what I think that emoji looks like on a human. It saves it so I can continue to use my version of the heart-eyes emoji on anyone’s post. These are called “realmojis”. Like with other social media apps you can comment on others’ posts as well as react. You can create a comment under your post after you take your photo so that it explains what you’re doing, where you are, etc.

Like the app 1 Second Everyday, BeReal creates a digital scrapbook of all your posts. I like that feature so I can have a memory photo roll to look back on. This app is also not a big time waster. You can click on Discover and view others’ posts, but basically how it works is you wait for your notification, take your selfie/photo within a 2 minute time frame and move on with your life.

What I like about this for student use is that it shows them what’s real about social media and what’s fake. So much of IG is posed, filtered, edited, etc. Many students believe what they see and think that all these celebrities and influencers live their lives like their posts. This app forces all users to show what their everyday life looks like without getting that “perfect shot”. I plan to use this app when I teach digital citizenship this year.

How I plan to use it in the library:

With everything happening in the library community with book challenges, I believe that a lot of it stems from ignorance about our profession. Many people don’t know all it takes to become a librarian and what we do on a day-to-day basis (and no, it’s not sit and read! I wish!) With this app I’ll be able to take real time photos of what I’m doing in my library whether it be inventory, weeding, shelving, processing, curating, research, teaching lessons, working with library aides, clubs, PD, meetings, hallway duty, creating displays, etc. The list is endless for what we do everyday in the library and how detailed our job is, as well as how much training goes into what it takes to be a knowledgable and proficient librarian. Many don’t know how we choose books and if we create an “open door policy” so to speak, it gives the public a look into our lives in the library. Perhaps we can reach more citizens if we show what a day in the life of a librarian looks like. As my friend and fellow school librarian, Amanda Jones, says, “It’s not bragging; it’s advocacy.”

One last note: this app is still new-ish and is working out the bugs. Be patient as they continue to roll out updates to fix all the kinks with any new app.

Let’s BeReal this year and have some fun in the library! https://bere.al/thenextgenlibrarian

*Thanks to The Insider and NPR for help with some of the features.

How To Be A TokStar Librarian

In December 2019 my students finally convinced me to get a TikTok account and post my first video. I was very nervous mostly because I didn’t know a lot about the TikTok platform. I’ve heard them talk about it for a good 8 months before finally deciding to get my own account. And what happened next shocked me: I spent the ENTIRE holiday break in the TikTok world. I watched videos by amazingly talented dancers, choreographers, artists, crafty people, teachers who shared great classroom info, and hilarious videos by comics, actors/actresses and/or just funny people in general. I saw motivational videos that made me cry. I saw young women voice their thoughts, feelings and share their stories of abuse, neglect, sexual assault and violence. I was in awe of their strength, power and courage.

Once I got back to school in January I made it a goal to film at least one TikTok video a day. My students who once cheered me to join now called me cringe and I was 100% okay with this. Because now I was having fun making dance videos and funny recordings of voiceovers. Students started noticing and commenting on my skills—mostly positive, so much so that when we had a pep rally in February that was TikTok themed I was asked to compete in a TikTok dance off boys vs. girls. Guess who won this?

When distance learning started in March, @akbusybee reached out to me and several other TikTok librarians to ask if we wanted to form a community like the SchoolHouseRock has done with teachers. We had a Zoom meeting to introduce ourselves and then we created a Discord chat to come up with ideas. We created @tokstarlibrarians on TikTok and Instagram to create positive library-themed content. It’s so great to get ideas from these men and women in our group and to show that you can use social media in a positive, responsible way. This is the main reason I stay on TikTok, other than it being fun. I follow mostly librarians and teachers so that’s the majority of the content I see when I get on. Like any social media app, there’s going to be good and bad. If you surround yourself with like-minded content creators, it’s going to be fun and suitable environment. When people say TikTok is nothing but a bad app, I have to strongly disagree. I’ve gotten amazing professional development opportunities, as well as ideas for the library, lessons and technology from it. What I’m trying to say is: find your people. The same can be said for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, etc. I want to show students that what you put out in the world represents you and can have lasting effects. I plan on using my TikTok when I teach digital citizenship this year. Hop on! You don’t even need an account to view the app. Simply download it and start watching, but it won’t curate content that’s specific to you unless you create an account and start following people you want to see on your For You page everyday. Then the TikTok algorithm will do it’s thing and start showing you people you might want to follow based on those you already follow.

I was lucky to participate in a podcast by Librarian Influencers on my TikTok PLN, using social media in the library and branding myself in the librarian community. It was such a joy to talk to Laura about all these topics and share some goals I have for this summer and school year ahead. To be honest things haven’t been so great since March. I struggle with anxiety and everything going on with COVID-19 and the uncertainty of what the 2020-2021 school year will look like has really amped up my stress to new levels. TikTok helps. I’m able to exercise when I learn new dances, laugh at myself when I make a funny TikTok voiceover, share books & authors and get new and exciting ideas to bring back to the library when things return to normal. It’s also been a great way to stay in contact with my students. They see my videos either on TikTok or when I share them on my IG Stories and they reply all the time with positive reviews and feedback. I even had a few students come out to me on TikTok because I shared that our library was an inclusive place during June for #LGBTQIA+ month. The fact that they felt comfortable enough with me to trust me with that information means more than I can say. Using social media allows me to reach them on their level, get their jokes, know their verbiage/lingo. If I get even one student to trust me or confide in me or reach out to me in the library then all of my social media accounts are worth it.