How social media changed the way we eat
From snapping pics of dinner to taking diet advice from influencers, social media has transformed our eating habits – and not always for the better, warns nutritionist
IONCE overheard someone in a restaurant say: “The calories just aren’t worth it if I can’t take a good photo for Instagram.”
That’s depressing and amazing when you think that just a few years ago, the idea of people photographing their food in a restaurant would have seemed crazy. And yet food is now one of the most popular things to post about online.
In some respects this isn’t surprising because merely seeing beautiful pictures of food can make us salivate.
However, we’re now taking so many pictures of food that you can buy cameras with a specific food mode – and this is just one way that social media has transformed the way we eat.
Life online: the impact
Social media has had a significant impact on how we eat. It’s changed what we choose to eat, how we eat and why we choose the foods we do.
It has contributed to more and more extreme ideas about food, led to an explosion of misinformation, provided an easy platform for us to judge and shame one another and added extra pressure to be perfect. But social media has also opened up new avenues for recipe inspiration, sharing of health expertise and food communities.
The truth is, modern technology has affected our food in both positive and negative ways. It can make us feel dissatisfied or enrich our lives.
Snap happy Insta-diet
There are many reasons we take and share pictures of food. Making something ourselves is a source of pride, or we want to record an event or social occasion. Maybe it’s a special treat we want to remember or perhaps the food is beautiful, unusual or different.
Often it’s because we want to track what we’re eating – apparently 23% of Instagram users photograph their food for a photoblog or as a food diary.
There are few things that can bring people closer together the same way as sharing a meal does – even if that sharing experience happens via a screen rather than across a table.
We’ve always eaten with our eyes first and social media is an amplification of this. It’s exciting, whether it’s taking a bit of extra care when plating up a dish or when you’ve finally ordered a menu item that all your online friends are raving about. It adds to the whole experience of eating.
When we share food on social media, we invite other people to participate in our experience. By posting about our food on social media, we never truly eat alone.
The comparison trap
Of course, the online world of food isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Sharing pictures of your food invites assumptions, judgments and shaming.
And following food accounts invites comparison. This can often lead to food anxiety. Most people who walk through the door to my clinic come because they have a relationship with food that is riddled with fear, shame and anxiety. They have been exposed to a significant amount of misinformation – usually online – and they’re tired of feeling stressed about everything they’re eating.
The rise of influencers
Influencers do exactly that – they use their online presence to influence the buying, eating or exercise habits of their followers.
It’s known that anecdotes are more appealing and memorable than statistics which is why
Did you know? The average person spends 158 minutes per day on social media Did you know? Searching for food on Instagram brings up 350million results
personal stories about food and health are very common on social media. One of the reasons we share food pictures online is for status. We’re far more likely to post a food picture from an expensive Michelin-starred restaurant or an exclusive food event, than we are from the local pub. These pictures make our lives look exciting and desirable. When these beautiful foods are shared and go viral, the restaurants or locations that sell them become go-to destinations, to the point where there are queues out the door. We suffer from serious FOMO (fear of missing out) when our social media feed is full of things we haven’t tried yet. But don’t forget that what you see on an influencer’s feed isn’t always the whole truth – some restaurants collaborate with them, giving them free meals and products in exchange for promotion and exposure.
Look vs taste
The rise of influencers and social media has encouraged restaurants to make food that’s aesthetically pleasing and gets the likes, but doesn’t always satisfy the palate.
When a certain dish becomes an Instagram sensation, it results in people queuing down the street. Starbucks’ Unicorn Frappuccino is a classic example of something looking good without actually tasting good.
I haven’t met a single person who has tried it and wasn’t disappointed by the flavour. That didn’t stop people from sharing their pictures online though.
In the end, what these viral foods lack in flavour, they make up for in likes and comments.
Camera backlash
While many chefs and restaurants love it when customers take pictures and share them online, others are less keen. High-end chefs such as David Chang at Michelin-starred Ko in New York have banned diners from taking photos of
food, while The Fat Duck in Berkshire, owned by Heston Blumenthal, has a no-flash policy.
A group of French chefs, including one with the coveted three Michelin stars, has threatened to ban cameras and mobile phones from their restaurants entirely.
While this may seem a bit extreme, some of their criticisms are well-founded. Pausing a conversation to take pictures derails it, flash photography disturbs everyone around you. Some chefs and restaurant owners have even said they felt blackmailed by influencers, some of whom threatened to write bad reviews unless they received free or discounted
food. While for most young people Instagram is the place to find out where to eat, sites like TripAdvisor still hold a lot of sway.
And one piece of bad press or one powerful influencer can potentially cause harmful reviews from others.
■ Extracted by DEBBI MARCO from The Insta-Food diet. How Social Media Has Shaped The Way We Eat by Pixie Turner (£16.99, Head of Zeus)
Did you know? More than half of UK Twitter users log on when they’re in a restaurant