Okay, I admit it. I may be guilty (on occasion) of ordering the banana chocolate chip waffles with the thought in my mind that it may possibly make for a good picture. But how could I not? With food Instagrams (i.e. foodstagrams) taking over my newsfeed day and night, it’s hard for my first reaction when walking into a restaurant not to be thinking about which table will have the best lighting for a photo.
We’ve all heard the expression “Eating for the Insta” in a somewhat joking “Ha ha I would actually never do that but secretly it’s all I’m thinking about” kind of way. After sitting in restaurants with friends and witnessing on multiple occasions as everyone instinctively whipped out their phones and began taking 100 photos before touching their food, I’ve come to believe the craze has gone a little too far.
While in BD the other night, a somewhat heated debate started between those who were “pro-foodstagram” and those who were not. While I had never been a person who was necessarily against food instagrams, I was starting to see that maybe they did have a point.
After the meal, a friend and I decided to both post horrible pictures of food on Instagram to see the reaction it would get. Sixty-one people liked the leftover vegetables that had fallen off my friend’s sandwich. And eight people commented about how good they looked. Texts were received about where I went out to dinner. If you mindlessly liked this picture of a pile of vegetables in a takeout box with mustard on them, or have liked similar pictures, I think some alarm bells should be going off in your head right now.
Think about half the food pictures you like on Instagram. Do you really think anyone enjoys eating a bagel stuffed with so much peanut butter and jelly that it looks the person who created it did it blindfolded with their arms tied behind their back? Well, apparently three thousand two hundred and ninety-two people do.
And let’s be real. When there’s a picture of a cucumber with cream cheese squished between two carrots… that has gotten one hundred and eighty-nine likes… society needs to reassess what is going on.
So next time you are scrolling through your newsfeed, while probably procrastinating doing something more important, think before you double tap on that picture that was clearly crafted for the eyes of the Insta-world. Refrain from pulling out your phone at the first sight of a well-crafted meal.
But always keep in mind, while foodstagrams may have their flaws, they play a huge role in society today. I mean really, where would we be if they hadn’t taught us that when eating cheesy-bread in the Swiss Alps, the only logical thing to do is to hold it up in the air and take a picture of it?