“My Instagram is down. What am I supposed to do with my food, eat it?”
That telling tweet sums up the preoccupation people have with sharing their meals on Instagram. The trend on the photo sharing application even has its own hashtag — #foodstagram.
Local blog LAist has a weekly feature of amusing quotes overhead in Los Angeles. One recent “Overheard of the Week” encapsulates foodstagram culture, as one friend remarks to her breakfast companion: “Get the toast, it’s more photogenic.”
Scholars have even studied the phenomenon, with mixed results. One study says Instagramming your meals signals an unhealthy preoccupation with food, while another suggests it somehow makes your food taste better.
Karen Tongson’s research specialties include popular culture and aesthetics. This past summer, the associate professor of English and gender studies led a Maymester course on food politics and culture. Tongson and her students integrated foodstagramming into their culinary research, chronicling the meals they ate from L.A. to Seattle.
Tongson points to three main reasons people insist on showing the world their decadent waffle brownie sundae or savory bibimbap.
For starters, an image of your food is like a trophy. “Snapping that photo of your meal and sharing it on Instagram is like hanging antlers on your wall,” Tongson said.
It’s also a way to convey your taste. “When you share your food, your friends know how adventurous you are, how expensive your food is, and how trendy the place is where you’re eating.”
Tongson admits to regularly sharing her own culinary escapades on Instagram. “For me, I know I’m implicitly participating in those first two categories when I post pictures of my food. But, hitting the ‘share’ button is also about chronicling what I’ve eaten.”
Tongson noted that gastronomists will keep a diary to record their meals. Instagram, instead, offers visual documentation, which she can refer to when she plans to go out to eat or recommend a restaurant to a friend.
“You can point your friends to a picture and say, definitely check this place out. Just look at this roast chicken.”
Read more stories from USC Dornsife Magazine‘s Fall 2014-Winter 2015 issue