In today’s culture, constant sharing of people’s day to day lives has become the norm.  Particularly, sharing of pictures of food.

But why has it become so important that we share images of our meals with the whole world?  Food has evolved from former functioning as nutrition into a source of status and culture.

For example, through the popular social media site Instagram, you’ve probably seen countless pictures of people’s bubble tea from Urth Caffe or someone’s In-N-Out burger. 

Where does this need to share their food come from?  The aestheticism of food has become more important than actual consumption. 

The tradition of mealtime has drastically changed from an intimate gathering to something shared with the whole world.  Specifically, rather than be engaged in food and conversation, individuals remove themselves from the present moment of the meal in order to stage the scene of their food. 

The closeness of a meal is lost by revealing the location of a person as he or she eats. 

The image of restaurants has become a status symbol that is spreading through social media. People have become obsessed with proving their participation in this trend by taking pictures of locations that are coined “popular”. 

The concept these restaurants put out, with help from socialites creates the obsession surrounding it.

Our culture has become brainwashed with the idea that what they eat helps their image.  This also contributes to the growing number of people who believe that their social media image is essential to their lives.