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Category: Project

Description: Unlike most social media, the new platform BeReal encourages its users to present themselves as authentically as possible. This focus on authenticity clearly resonates with adolescents, among whom the app has gained great popularity in a short period of time. Previous literature showed that authentic self-presentation on social media has a positive impact on adolescents’ well-being (Bailey et al., 2020; Bij de Vaate et al., 2020; Twomey & O'Reilly, 2017). Indeed, exposure to your own authentic self-presentations can contribute to a clearer picture of who you are (i.e., self-concept clarity) (Fullwood et al., 2016), which in turn leads to increased self-esteem (Wong et al., 2016). Thus, the first aim of this study is to find out how authentic self-presentations on BeReal relate to adolescents’ self-esteem. On BeReal, users are also exposed to the self-presentations of their friends. As already frequently studied in the case of other social media, this elicits social comparison processes (e.g., Verduyn et al., 2020). Accordingly, multiple studies showed that exposure to optimized, inauthentic self-presentations of others (e.g., on Instagram) elicits an upward comparison process associated with negative consequences for one's self-esteem (Schmuck et al., 2019; Vogel et al., 2014). However, regarding exposure to authentic self-presentations, the literature is less clear and might also involve downward and lateral comparison processes. Consequently, the second aim of this study is to clarify the direction of these comparison processes in the case of being exposed to (perceived) authentic self-presentations of others.