Your food arrives at your table. After anxiously awaiting, you pull out your phone ready to take the perfect photo. You’re standing up in your seat, trying to find the best angle. You already have a filter in mind, edit the photo on VSCO and upload it to Instagram. You go to take a bite of your food, and it’s already cold.
Every action has a consequence, some more apparent than others. One may naively believe that the only consequence of Instagramming their food is just a plate full of less appetizing, cold food. However, more serious consequences were proven as a result of a study conducted by a United Kingdom supermarket company.
The study was among millennials–the generation which accounts for the majority of food Instagrams. The study concluded that millennials, primarily those with food Instagrams, were one of the major causes of the United Kingdom’s growing food waste problem. The main findings were that consumers aged 18-34 have a “live to eat” mentality. This essentially means that millennials have been found to associate food with pleasure rather than purpose.
Millennials are more likely to spend more on food, and less time planning out their meals than other generations. This has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of food waste. Millennials are more focused on the social aspects of dining, rather than its actual purpose: to keep you alive. This ultimately resulting in many millennials spending money on food that they don’t really need, which later goes to waste. This is more common in younger generations than in the older generations. In fact, the study also concluded that 40 percent of people over 65 claim they never waste food, while only 17 percent of people under 35.
In the era of “doing it for the Insta” this all makes sense. Let’s think of it this way: Imagine the scenario again where you’re trying to take the perfect photo of your plate of food. You spent extra money on additions which will make your food more photogenic. You go out of your way to create an elaborate #foodporn worthy creation to only take a bite of it and realize, it tastes horrible. Who really wants to eat a bagel smothered in Nutella and marshmallow fluff, then stuffed with actual S’mores inside of it anyway?