My Phone Eats First: How Social Media Has Changed the Food Industry

Written by Brendan Gieseke

Since the nostalgic Instagram/Tumblr era, the way information about the "coolest new restaurant" or the "coolest new food item" circulates through word of mouth has never been the same! After all, the new ‘word of mouth’, social media, can allow visual depictions of food to be instantly shared, making it everyone’s hottest topic to discuss, just overnight. This phenomenon has been seen time after time, dating back to original 2016 vibe trends like the secret-menu Starbucks drink called the Unicorn Frappuccino, which exploded all over the internet at its peak, or recent discoveries like Dumpling Lasagna that have captured the attention of every foodie on social media. 

Whether you consider the impacts of social media on the food industry to be positive or negative, though, it’s evident that platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and even the internet in general have changed the way we look at food. Restaurants have started adopting digital marketing strategies. Food has become glamorized as influencers crop and angle their food to make it the most appealing it ever could be. Customers have felt scammed after going to ‘rip-off’ restaurants that were portrayed differently on their phone’s blue light. Lines have circled whole blocks after experiencing virality and high demand. Today, we’ll do a quick deep dive into just exactly how impactful our doomscrolling apps have been to the food industry. 

One change is unavoidably the way some of my fellow Gen-Zers act around food, restaurants, and literally any eating venue. It’s a new kind of ritual that has been adopted by many social media users, phrased as “the camera eats first.” Basically, it’s a practice that highlights the importance of aestheticizing and taking photos of your ordered food, before you even eat it, so that you don’t bite marks in your ‘Instagramable’ burger that would be ruined if you dare touch it before your camera lens can enjoy and capture it. Some satirical videos online even acknowledge how disciples of the ‘camera eats first’ ideology seem to be spending more time rearranging the positions of the food items, to take the most Instagram-worthy photos, than the time it takes to eat the food. While I, too, have fallen victim to this mindset (I have an Instagram highlight dedicated to my food adventures), it is interesting to note how social media’s curated pressure to have an admirable lifestyle takes a toll on how we need to present the food we eat. If the food we’re eating (or rather taking pictures of) doesn’t look appetizing and mouth-watering to our followers, to some, it can feel like social suicide. 

But glamorization comes with a cost, and the essence of valuing the visual beauty of the food we eat can create a mindset where the actual quality of the food or restaurant service doesn’t really matter when placed next to the appeal of beautiful food. It creates an attitude of, “Who cares how good the food is?” Or, it creates the prioritization of views and clicks before the actual food. Some restaurants can appear visually beautiful yet serve mediocre food at best. A disgrace to dining? Maybe. Some restaurants may, yes, have amazing food, but for some reason feel so gimmicky that the menu items feel meant to be photographed; it’s designed to be unique and generate buzz on social media. It puts the likes before the food. Is this a crime? No. But could it diminish the genuine point of what food subjectively represents (passion, creativity, human nature…)? Probably. 

While this article isn’t here to play the role of a gustatory court judging what’s good and bad, it’s certainly here to show some of the aspects that can feel questionable, surrounding the rise of social media in the food industry. While virality may seem like an inevitable positive, some restauranters who experience the ‘luck’ feel they’ve received a curse. Their customers are no longer passionate about food; they are passionate about their camera. 

Yet, simultaneously, social media can give the opportunity for small businesses and restaurants to expand their audience, increasing the customer base they so need to flourish in the long-run. In a way, when we see the recipes shared, the smiles, and the stories shared about food on social media, it is also hard to take it as anything less than sincere and dear to the traits of being human. Food has been an essential part of human nature since prehistoric times. It’s a way of bonding. While social media can morph into a negative tool of danger, it has the ability to become a way for humans to understand each other better and bond through shared meals, even if it’s through the screen. But at the end of the day, once we sit at the dinner table, we must never let the phone be more valuable than the emotions we feel from food and humans. 

Thumbnail Credit:

https://www.pexels.com/photo/taking-photos-of-a-dessert-with-a-smartphone-14571656/