In PlatoOne of the most important Ancient Greek philosophers. 's Allegory of The Cave, he describes a group of prisoners chained to the wall of a cave, facing a blank surface. They can only perceive the shadows of those who pass in front of a fire behind them. As they cannot see the real causes of the shadows, they come to regard the dark shapes they see on the wall as "reality".

Many liken this allegoryA story or poem that has a hidden moral or political meaning.  to social media. Young people today have grown up submerged in social media culture. For many, it has come to be almost everything that they know - a sort of quasiAlmost but not completely.-reality, where people live as much in their Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter feeds as they do in the physical world. And many users feel these sites force people to falsify and glamourise their lives for the approval of other people.

Cue BeReal, a 2020 social media app marketed as the "anti-Instagram" - recording the banal moments of the everyday rather than glossy edited snapshots. Its 15 million daily users receive a notification every 24 hours inviting them to record what they are doing at the moment of the alert. Meanwhile, a selfie is set into a picture of their surroundings as a "realistic insight" into their lives.

There is no option for gilded curations of users' daily routines, nor for careful photoshop or FacetuneA photo-editing app. The notification could come as you touch down abroad for a luxury beach holiday, but it could also catch you chowing down a double bowl of cereal in your seventh hour of a Netflix binge.

Critics who have long bemoaned the loss of authenticity in the lives of younger generations who grew up with social media have praised the ethosThe characteristic spirit of a culture. of BeReal. However, others criticise a "modern hysteria" about the lack of honesty in our lives.

Whilst many philosophers have underlined the value of truth, Plato included, others dismiss it. Some philosophers believe that consciousness itself is a mere story created by the human brain to make meaning from experiences, and as such the self does not exist. For them, trying to give meaning to "reality" is a form of artificeTrickery..

NietzscheA 19th-Century German philosopher. considered people to be entirely constructed, but approached this fakery positively, and believed that wearing a "mask" to conceal one's true self should be a necessity. Meanwhile, early philosophers like EmpedoclesAn ancient Greek philosopher who believed that all matter was made of four elements: fire, air, water and earth. developed ornate fake personas.

Nathan Dufour OglesbyAn American academic known for his philoso-rapping on TikTok. even suggested that the internet fame of controversial commentators such as Jordan PetersonA Canadian psychologist and media personality known for his right-wing views. recalls the Socratic dialoguesConversations between two people in which they are forced to think critically and ask and answer questions. , where "a thinker's claim to wisdom relies on their ability to perform it" in Twitter-esque, viral soundbites. According to him, we might have seen Socrates on Instagram Reels.

It would be foolish to ignore evidence of the negative impact of social media on our general life satisfaction. But for now, a fierce debate remains as to what exactly is causing this, and whether a social media site designed to strip back the inauthenticity can really make a difference.

Yes: Our reliance on portraying our lives as perfect on social media has had immeasurable negative effects. BeReal offers a way for us to show the people around us that our lives are not perfect.

No: Our focus on authenticity is senseless. Surely, internet users should be able to tell for themselves that what they see on Instagram is a "perfect" representation of reality. Why should we have to break it down for them?

Or... BeReal looks like a good alternative to the most perniciousHarmful. social media sites like Instagram and Snapchat, but in the end, all social media apps will do their best to make money from users and their data.