Almost everybody with a Facebook account
has seen a plate of food posted on the social media site. But why do people
feel the need to share their meals with the world? I think it is because of how
food can be used as a form of communication, and that people use food as a tool
to show their life in a particular light.
People can use food as an interesting
narrative tool, to communicate their life to their friends on social media. For
example a picture of somebody’s expensive meal in a fancy restaurant can suggest
that they have a lot of money and that they have a sophisticated pallet. Somebody
could also post a picture of fast food or a simple meal to imply that they are
a laid back person, or an obscure foreign dish can be used to imply a sense of
being ‘cultured’. Atkins and Bowler (2001, p.285) explain that eating food
native to another country creates a social divide between those who are seen as
cultured and those that are not.
So effectively food can be used as a
narrative to communicate ones, personality, wealth, culture, religion, and
social status. This makes food an incredibly strong form of communication. The
sheer amount of information that food can convey, can allow somebody to make
assumptions about almost every aspect of somebodies personal life. What is not
posted can have just as large of an impact on public assumptions as what is
posted. For example if somebody never posts nutritious foods then there is no
real way of deducing if they are a healthy or nutritious person.
It is safe to say that food is a very
powerful tool of communication that can imply many things about somebody,
whether they are true or not. People should be wary of what they post on
Facebook as they may not realize just powerful of a communication tool food can
be, and how it can shape how other people view their lives.
References
Atkins, P., & Bowler, I. (2001) Food in Society: Economy, Culture,
Geography. London, England: Hodder Headline Group. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/Conc-camcontent-bb_bb60/items/getitem.jsp?as_course_code=12-BA1002-TSV-INT-SP2&content_id=_768726_1&course_id=_26169_1&doc_id=30459
How Social Media is Changing the Way we Eat
(2014) Retieved from https://www.menulog.com.au/blog/social-media-changing-eat/
Image Reference
Taking Photo of Food (2013) Retrieved from http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1371671/images/o-TAKING-PHOTO-OF-FOOD-facebook.jpg
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that people use pictures of food posted to their social media sites as a way of showing that they have better taste, are rich or more willing to try new thing than the average person, and that in doing so are creating that narrative of themselves and putting it out into the virtual world. As for the amount of information that seeing the food someone eats can give you, I know that I personally always judge everyone harshly on what they have chosen to post to Facebook and food is no exception. Though usually in the case of food that judgement just ends up being “this person is posting photos of their food to impress people”. Maybe I’m trapping myself into a pointlessly aggravating train of thought like Gary Klein’s (2013) patients. But I don’t see myself changing this anytime soon.
References
Klein, G. 2013. Hidden Assumptions Retrieved from : https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/seeing-what-others-dont/201310/hidden-assumptions-0