Oliver Twist couldn’t have said it better: ‘Food, glorious food.’ We love our food. And, with the increasing popularity of social networking sites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, it seems we love sharing images of our food too.
Whether it’s out at a restaurant, visiting a quaint cafe or something we’ve cooked ourselves, we want our friends and followers to be jealous. Whilst I’ve seen the odd person sharing images of cooking disasters (how do you ruin a roast chicken?!), the majority of people show off their delectable eats to make us drool.
For home cooks, showing off their cooking skills is a must. It’s the online equivalent of running up to a parent or teacher and saying, ‘Look what I made!’ Social networking gives us an excuse to do this as adults – after all, what’s the point in having an Instagram account if you are not going to show off your attempts at petite gateaux?
For those of us who love restaurants, there’s one simple reason why we go to the trouble of pausing the conversation, laying down our cutlery and reaching for our mobile phone cameras: to inspire jealousy. Everyone gets a kick out of other people’s jealousy, food is a simple way to make other people want what you have. We all have to eat, but everyone has varying degrees of cooking ability and we are all limited by funds and location – whence the popularity of food porn!
Instagram is the most famous site for food porn, but Facebook and Twitter aren’t far behind. They all allow us to upload and view images, whilst tagging the people and places involved. Pinterest, meanwhile, allows us to combine every website on the internet and create a mass food porn gallery and the images don’t have to be taken by ourselves or people we know. Is this why food Bloggers can now have visitors in their millions visiting their sites and social media? Yup.
The plus side is that everyone has to eat and discussions about food – which can often be lead by food porn – are a great way for people to get to know one another. They are also a way for us to show off our culinary skills and inspire others to push themselves to create beautiful and healthy meals at home.
Do you have a picture of a beautiful dish you have cooked or prepared? Email us at: info@ styleable.co.uk
1 comment
That picture is pornography.