RealMoji
April 17, 2022
I started using BeReal recently. Itās an app where everybody gets a push notification once a day, and then you have two minutes to post a picture of what youāre doing in that moment.
One part of the app I thought was really interesting were what they call RealMoji ā itās the ability to react to someoneās post with an āemojiā thatās actually a picture of your face in that moment.

I really like this idea. Itās such a frictionless way of responding to someoneās post in a personal way, without having to think of a witty comment to leave.
But I clearly like this because of how easy it is āĀ just pressing a button, putting my face into some expression, and letting the phone snap a picture of my face.
Itās an extremely cheap way of socially interacting with someone, while still feeling like you socially interacted with them. Does that cheapen it? When I send a RealMoji, Iām not even thinking of words to type and send; Iām just sending a photo of my face to show that I was here.
Does that indicate that I care about the person? It feels like it does, for some reason. Perhaps itās that weāre social creatures, and seeing peopleās faces makes us feel connected to one another. Even if theyāre light interactions, that picture of a face feels a bit like a friend said hi to you.
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