Who Eats First? You or Your Phone?

Picture this. You and your friends go out to brunch on a Sunday morning. Your friends order French toast, pancakes, and eggs benedict. You order a fresh glass of orange juice and avocado toast. When the food comes out, all of you simultaneously grab your phones and place each of the meals precisely so the camera can fit all of them within the lens. Each of you take turns organizing the meals to what you each consider aesthetically pleasing. You then take a picture and prepare to post the image on social media. Then, after all this is done, you finally eat.

Social Media: How to Engage, Share, and Connect by Regina Luttrell states, “The advent of the point, shoot, and upload philosophy allows anyone to take high-quality images with ease, upload them to a computer, then then use them for professional or personal use.”

About five years ago when I would go out to eat with my friends, I began to hear the phrase “phone eats first.” Some of my friends who are very active on social media, particularly Instagram, would stop me from starting my meals so they could grab a shot of my food. “Phone eats first” is a phrase used when taking a picture of your food before you even take a bite of it. Essentially, your phone is capturing and “eating” your food before you even can.

Image by: INSIDER

The rise of social media has influenced how people consume, view and share food. With social media, people are able to share information more quickly and more efficiently. Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram, have created a large base and following for food media. Food is one of the most photographed subjects in the world. In fact, food hashtags make up the most-used hashtags on Instagram. Food-centric media now consists of videos, such as Tasty, and photography. In these ways, people are now sharing food more than we ever have before.

To gain more perspectives on how social media has changed the way we eat, I walked around my campus and interviewed some students. My question was: How has the rise of social media and its effect on food, changed the way you consume and perceive food?

Isabella Ruiz, student at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University states, “Well when I order food off the menu, I order items that will not only taste good but also look good. I will probably take a picture right away when food comes to table and post a pic on snap, and depending on the quality and colors maybe Instagram.”

Audrey Adam member of Alpha Phi sorority at Syracuse said, “Well I like to look on a restaurant's Instagram first to see if the food looks good. Normally its images will either inspire me to eat at the place or not too.”

Image by: Magicpin

Social media has shifted the way people want to eat. The physical appeal of food and the way it looks on media platforms can allow a person to dine at a restaurant or not. Additionally, customers are huge advertisers for restaurants. Now, everyone takes a moment to capture food on their phones. If a person posts the picture and tags the restaurant, the restaurant is instantly advertised to that person’s followers on social media.

As a public relations practitioner, it is interesting to see how media is shifting the way consumers view things. Now, many people think about what the food looks like and forget for a moment about what it actually tastes like. An image can also be misleading and lead a consumer to believe a meal is more delicious than it actually tastes. It is important to identify the truth behind the images posted on media platforms.

In conclusion, the next time you and your friends go out to eat, take a moment to look around and ask why you choose that restaurant. Is it because you saw it on Instagram? Maybe it's because you know what you order will look good in an image. Or maybe it simply is because you know it tastes delicious.

Category: Food, Social Media, Photography, Public Relations

Hashtags: #food #photography #Instagram #Socialmedia #LRNSMPR