As discussed in the one of the lectures in our class, Digital Life and Digital Technology, Internet has truly provided a space wherein it is easy to create, communicate, and publish content. People can share to the world heartfelt emotions, movies they watched, "selfies" and passions. And now, the content has reached the domain of food.
Food is not just on the Internet because of those online ordering sites and businesses. Food is on the Internet because people post about it as well! Various mouthwatering dishes are dominating different social networking sites, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Who knew one's lunch can draw so much attention? (of course, in terms of <3 and likes)
One of the possible reasons why "food porn" - taking pictures of food and posting it online, as defined by urbandictionary.com- has proliferated is because the Internet Essentials are readily available. As discussed in the same lecture, device and access are the Internet essentials. More and more restaurants are providing its customers Wifi connections. Then, for the device, a lot of cellphones have cameras and apps which are suited for food porn. As a result, people can just look on their accounts to get inspiration on what to have for dinner.
Well, others may be guilty of taking such pictures, some do not get the point in engaging in such activity. However, instagramming these food can be helpful enhacing its taste. Actually, it is the ritual before the intake of food, such as clicking those cameras, that can enhance the taste, according to different published researches in Psychological Science Journal (Holt, 2013). In the same article, it is also clarified that direct participation is needed, The involvement in the experience is the key in the taste enhancement.
Then, another article shows that looking at food photos, which is not a direct experience, may make real food less tasty (Castillo, 2013). In the same article, a study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology is discussed. It is said that an experiment wherein participants looked at at 60 images of salty foods showed that these people enjoyed the peanuts less. The explanation for this is sensory boredom. The craving for the salty food has been satisfied already by the images that it had little exciting effect when real food was being eaten.
As seen in these cited articles and studies, different phenomena happening in the virtual world, like engaging and witnessing food porn, can have an effect in the real world. This means that the people and the Internet have an interaction. People contribute to the contents of the Internet, through posts. Then, Internet contributes to the lifestyle of its users.
Blog by:
Gaea Isabel D. Trazo
201040563
STS THW - Group 6
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