“No one cares what you had for lunch.” When social media first started gaining momentum, this was a common criticism. But years later, millions of social media users disprove this every day, posting and commenting on pictures of what they are cooking, eating, or drinking. In fact, Instagram reports upwards of 50 million Americans share post food photos each day, enough to warrant its own term: “foodstagramming.”
My Picture-Perfect Pizza
Recently, I was one of those foodstagramming fools. For dinner one night, I made homemade pizzas for my family. They were a huge hit, and I was especially proud of how one pizza, with a picture-perfect crust and toppings: pepperoni, Canadian bacon, bacon, black olives, mushrooms, onions, green peppers and cheese, turned out. I decided to snap a quick photo and post it on Facebook with the caption: “Little Ceasars ain’t got nothin’ on the Nicholas Pizza!” My co-worker, Kendra, saw the post, and next thing you know, I was agreeing to make her family their own homemade pizza dinner the next time I visit Matchmaker Logistics’ headquarters in Wilmington, NC.
The practice of photographing one’s food has whipped up quite a controversy in the food world. Chefs, like Anthony Bourdain, have spoken out against it, and certain restaurants have banned it. Some restaurant owners claim that food photographers can delay table turnover “by nearly an hour” because 26 out of every 45 customers spend an average of 3 minutes finding the right photography angle, deciding which filter looks best, determining what caption they would attach to the image, posting it on a social media, and then constantly checking their pages to see how many people have ‘liked’ the post..
Even major chains like Applebee’s have considered a partial ban on the practice. Applebee’s filed a trademark for “No Tech Tuesdays,” a move which seems more than a little hypocritical considering that they just installed 100,000 table-side tablets in restaurants across the country, encouraging diners to use WhatsApplebee’s, an exclusive social network for fans of their food.
To foodstagram or not to foodstagram? That is the question. And it seems, everyone has a different answer. For me, the last word (and the funniest) came on June 30th from a Twitter user who had this to say when storms in North Virginia caused power outages that temporarily took down Pinterest, Instagram, Netflix, and other Amazon Web Services:
My Instagram is down?
What am I supposed to do with my food, eat it?
Happy Monday,
Mary
