social media and food

Blog 6

communitymediaworkshop.org

It’s crazy to think that social media can change the way we see ourselves or the world. But believe it or not it can also change the way we look as well as what we eat. Every day I scroll through Instagram and see people post pictures of their meals. Usually these meals consist of yoghurt, fruits, seeds and other healthy foods. It’s very interesting how seeing things like this can influence our daily lives. Within the readings for this week it stated that “food messages are received even when there is no advertisement”. I found this fascinating because it is right in front of our faces yet we do not see it. Advertisement plays such an important part in our lives and is the reason why we choose or have certain things. When we see healthy pictures posted on Instagram we automatically get that motivation and drive to try and change our lifestyle by working out or changing what we eat. Every day without even noticing it we get persuaded to buy these items that are posted on social media or in our favourite tv shows. Within this week’s lecture kuttainen said that what we eat is a representation of our identity. No doubt that is the honest truth. And when you think about it our culture, religion and economic status really define what our choices are and what we can eat. Whatever we see on social media relates to our status in life, for example if we have less income weekly than others we are no doubt going to have more cheap meal recipes on our pages or if we choose to live a healthy lifestyle we will have more nutritious foods.

Atkins, P. Bowler, I. (2001). Food in society: economy, culture, geography. New York, United States of America: oxford university press Inc.
Kuttainen. V. (2015). BA1002; Lecture week eight. [PowerPoint slide]. Retrieved from: http://:www.learnjcu.edu.au