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, the new "anti-Instagram" app which focuses on showing the boring moments of the everyday. 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 with a selfie and a picture of their surroundings. 

There is no option for glamorous 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.

Many see social media's lack of authenticityGenuineness. as a problem, and praise BeReal for encouraging a more realistic approach. Others criticise the idea that inauthenticity is an issue. Philosophers such as NietzscheA 19th-Century German philosopher. believed that we should wear a "mask" to conceal our true selves from others, whilst others see reality as a simulation created by our brains to make meaning out of our lives.

Some Ancient Greek philosophers created faked personas to make their philosophical observations go "viral" in society. Nathan Dufour OglesbyAn American academic known for his philoso-rapping on TikTok. recently suggested that Socrates might have been featured on YouTube shorts for his snappy, memorable soundbites.

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 fake representation of reality. Why should we have to break it down for them?

Or... BeReal looks like a good alternative to the most harmful 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.