Image Credit: Unsplash- Toni Koraza
If you take a quick scroll on your phone, be it a group chat with friends, or a social media like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, chances are you’ll see a food-related photo within seconds.
Food-related promotion on social platforms has become so universal for content creation, not only because it is so easy to produce and relevant to everyone viewing it. Data from digital marketing agency 360i shows that a staggering 25% of food photos are motivated by the need to document our day for the public.
As someone who also uses social media, as a form of engagement for friends and family to see what I am up to, it also got me questioning, what happened to regular forms of connection, rather than our ability to upload a picture to the new hit food place?
I think that there is some sense in posting an ‘aesthetic snapshot’ of a gourmet dish, particularly when on a holiday, as a part of visual self-presentation, and it can help us validate how our food is making us feel about ourselves.
However, food marketing is absolutely essential to drive business and create awareness and sales within a competitive market. Not only this, but it also plays a significant role in shaping consumer choices and influencing public health.
Although this sense of marketing is fluctuating around us, you are likely to see a constant change in ‘trending’ food items or places to eat. This can make it difficult, especially for people who find topics on eating and food overwhelming, to make those healthy food choices.
Researchers from Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and University of Southern Carolina, elaborates on the act of photo-taking, as taking a photo during a positive experience, can make us feel happier, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the experience itself.
However good taking pictures of food may be when out for a specific purpose, with family, a friend, or a partner, sometimes taking too many pictures can trigger something else. Some argue that it can make us gain more weight, as we start to obsess over food and meals that can help us gain attraction to the food we eat. Eating out often is also a sign of wealth, meaning you can afford to have luxurious meals, whereas some may find it difficult with their earnings to afford to pay for food.
I think it is an interesting debate to consider why we post so regularly about food, even before tasting it. As I am, myself, guilty of cultivating this lifestyle. It isn’t just about the physicality of having the food, it is the gesture about sharing it with people we love and care about. It unites us together after a long day, week, or month of work. It’s about enjoying that takeaway after a night out, a reunion with a long-distance friend, or a home-cooked meal that someone lovingly prepared for you. No matter how bleak the internet may feel, food content will always shine through, as a freeing act to do as you please.
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