Facebook... Food... Foodbook?

By Trent Colledge

Image Credits: Restaurantcentral.ca_Instagram_Compilation

I know that my previous blogs haven't been referring to Instagram as my Social Network of choice, but this can still relate back to Facebook. Everyone obsesses about food, and everyone always seems hungry, especially on social media, and it never helps when your best friend post a photo of that gorgeous chocolate cake that they just finished baking, or a mouth-watering homemade burger. It all happens, and it's an interesting development that has come about since the birth of social media.

Like I said before, while typically on Instagram, this phenomenon of posting photos of our food to social media is an interesting way of communication that has developed. People are taking photos of food, whether it be a new place they are trying for the first time, or a regular diner they like, or something homemade because it's "an expression of identity" (Kuttainen, 2015), a way of showing what you like as a person, and then many people commenting on how they like it, too, or suggesting a new restaurant for you to try, or possible "exotic foods" (Atkins & Bowler, 2001), or somewhere new for you to try.

But a lot of the time, people enjoy sharing photos of themselves and a friend or two at a local fast food outlet. It most likely comes down to not having enough money to dine out at a higher class restaurant, or even something that's still fairly reasonable, people aren't willing go the extra mile. Society has been consumed by the "'Fast Food Nations'" (Patel, 2007) because it is easy, cheap, and quick, as the name obviously suggests. But of course, we know that is isn't healthy for you, which is why Patel points out that "corporations that sell our food shape and constraint how we eat, and how we think about food", saying that because something has become so simple and cheap to consume, it makes it more likely that society is going to follow the trend and choose fast food over a healthy homemade meal that takes hours to prepare.

References

Atkins, P. & Bowler, I. (2001) The origins of taste. Retrieved on September 18, 2015 from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

Kuttainen, V. (2015) Our space: Networks, narratives, and the making of place, lecture 8: Food networks [Powerpoint Slides] Retrieved on September 18, 2015 from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

Patel, R. (2007) Stuffed and starved. Retrieved on September 18, 2015 from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

Image Credits

Instagram Food Compilation [Image] (2012) Retrieved on September 18, 2015 from http://restaurantcentral.ca/Thebellyofthebeholder.aspx