Instagram is the home of unrealistic body and life goals, a place where the beautiful people go to flaunt their wares.
Most people could admit they get a little bit envious of some aspect of others’ social media lives and that we even try and portray our own daily adventures to being a bit more exciting than they actually are.
If someone had said ten years ago that I would be taking photos of my food and even editing the colours then posting them online for likes, I would have fallen off my log laughing.
You could say we are so obsessed with how we are perceived that even our food has become a way of depicting our lifestyles. Only the beautiful food makes the cut, your Tuesday night potato waffles and chicken nugget combo isn’t going anywhere near your carefully styled Instagram page. That is the culinary equivalent of posting a picture of yourself in your dog walking coat and boyfriends tracksuit bottoms – you just don’t do it.
I am guilty of this, I shamelessly post any half decent looking meal, if I’m not somewhere too fancy. I like the way it looks on my page and I do have a small obsession with food. I guess a part of me does want to show off that I’m at a posh restaurant or that I’m cooking up a nice meal.
Research by Sainsbury’s showed that people aged 18-34 are a generation that ‘lives to eat’ as appose to generations before that ‘ate to live’.
The study also states that younger generations have a bad attitude towards food and that bad planning and a preoccupation with Instagram friendly dishes is contributing heavily to the UK’s 15m tonne of waste.
I guess everyone could do a bit more to reduce that figure, only buy what we need and not what we want. This could be said for all aspects of life.
Instagram and social media also has many benefits to do with food. If anything, I see more healthy recipes and tasty meal ideas than ever before – the humble avocado is the Kim Kardashian of insta-food, photographed to death. You have celebrity’s meal planning and exercising which does inspire you to go to the gym.
With so many high profile chefs and personal trainers active on social media, it’s easier than ever to access dietary advice and exercise tips. Just last week I was watching a Joe Wicks live feed, which was full of interesting ideas to do with exercise – something that wouldn’t have been so easily accessible years ago.
And, with McDonalds, once the biggest fast food chain in the world, reporting record dips in sales and gloomy profit forecasts, could our new found insta-food obsession be contributing to a healthier diet without us even realising?
Social media has changed how we communicate, shop, date and discover new things so it was always going to have an effect on our food pr.
If we all work at being more responsible and use social media in a positive way then it can only be a good thing.
Our consumer lifestyle digital PR team specialise in connecting everyday brands with everyday people across four core sectors; Consumer Lifestyle PR, Food & Drink PR, Online Retail PR and Sport, Health & Wellbeing PR. More information on these areas of knowledge can be found at www.escapadepr.com/about-us.
