There are two types of people in the world: those who love sharing their food on social media, and those who don’t.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I definitely fall into the former category. Not only do I like sharing photos of food, whether a takeaway burger or homemade cakes, I love seeing other people’s. It’s easy to appreciate beautiful photography regardless of subject.
But maybe it’s more significant than just a photo of your dinner.
Inspiring others
One of the reasons sharing food pics on social media is so popular is that it’s a great source of inspiration for your own meals. Not only that, but it can be a great motivator for your goals: eating more healthily, doing more home cooking, wasting less food and so on. It’s easy to use Pinterest to browse recipes, follow specific bloggers on any and all social networks, and quickly google an ingredient to find out how to use it or what goes well with it.
Best of all, you know that the people making these dishes are just like you. They aren’t professional chefs with 20 years’ experience, huge kitchens, practically unlimited budgets, and staff on hand to prep ingredients for them before they record a video with multiple takes. With social media recipes, an amazing, creative meal seems a lot more doable – even if you don’t get it perfect first time.
If you have to (or choose to) follow a specific diet or lifestyle, you can make that happen really easily with clever searches. You don’t have to be restricted to buying a book which sits forgotten or only has one decent recipe in it. You can ask questions, get help, and find out where to buy the things you need.
Supporting businesses
Organically1 sharing photos of food from restaurants, cafes, and so on, is invaluable for businesses of all sizes. There are many, many places I would never have heard about if it wasn’t for a friend checking in there and sharing a photo of some amazing-looking food. I’ve both asked for and given opinions based on someone adding a picture of their meal. A genuine recommendation from a friend is incredibly powerful, and vital for businesses facing a lot of competition.
Documenting memories
A lot of my favourite memories are associated with food, like baking bread in Paris and sharing a geeky birthday cake with our gaming group. A photo is a great way to document that and jog your memory about smells and tastes as well as sights.
Celebrating what you’ve made
People don’t think it’s weird to post a photo of a painting you’ve done or a scarf you’ve knitted, so why should food be any different? It’s not a crime to celebrate something you’ve spent time and effort creating. And if you can’t celebrate with your friends, who can you celebrate with?
Improving your skills
A while ago I came across an old photo of my cakes and did a side-by-side comparison of my baking and photography then and now (see Insignificance, standing still, and all that good stuff). Years of baking and taking photos has definitely improved both skills for me.
What about inspiration from others to improve your skills? Looking at other people’s photos for composition and prop ideas is something even professional photographers do, and even if you don’t photograph food, you can get plenty of inspiration for your other photos.
What it says about you
Food, in all its glory of flavour and colour, is not only essential to life, it’s a key aspect of your personality. What someone chooses to eat says so much about who they are and how they live, and it has all kinds of influence when posted on social media.
Let them eat cake. But don’t forget to take a photo and upload it.
- i.e. for no compensation ↩
12 Comments
Definitely agree! Getting inspiration, sharing our enjoyment of eating or cooking, and just overall finding like-minded friends. That’s what social media is all about :)
11/05/2016 at 8:25 pmI really don’t think that sharing food on Instagram is considered weird to others, I think they really don’t know what’s going on or know why people share food. Honestly, I used to share my food on Instagram. However, I noticed that they’re not really ‘magazine’ material and just stopped. I often see Instagrammers who use Instagram to post their food for Weight Watchers. They do this to share how many points is something (which is what I used to do). However, some times people forget to take a picture of something and it’s either half eaten (which is gross – why would I want to see that? Though, you’d be surprised how many likes a half eaten banana would get)food. I don’t think that’s attractive.
Though, what do I think is attractive? Magazine style pictures. Not everyone is a professional (like me), but seriously. Magazine style pictures is the bomb and on top of that it does help promote restaurants.
I don’t find sharing pictures of food weird at all. Again, I used to do it myself until I was grossed out by a picture I saw.
12/05/2016 at 7:39 amI’ll admit, I didn’t get Instagram at first, but once I joined, I really really like it! I share photos of food that I’m really proud of or that I think is just so beautiful I have to share with everyone. Food is definitely an art form, and it’s something that brings everyone together. Why not share?
I agree with everything you said. I’ve made a few dishes because I was inspired or I tried something differently because of something I saw. Plus, I’m not a Michelin star chef, so I’m always proud when something comes out PERFECT. Though, now that I think of it, I haven’t shared any food pictures lately. ;P
PS – I just followed you on Instagram. :)
12/05/2016 at 5:17 pmYum! I used to Instagram my food all the time, but I realised I was just taking photos of all my food just to share it. Over time I started to eat more of the same stuff so there was no point sharing a photo again. :P But recently I have found myself getting out my phone to take photos of food when I go to new places, when I want to send my parents photos and I might be away, or just to recommend restaurants!
I am far from being a cook but I remember cooking things a while ago and feeling damn well proud of it – of course I was going to Instagram it ????
13/05/2016 at 8:01 amYum! I used to Instagram my food all the time, but I realised I was just taking photos of all my food just to share it. Over time I started to eat more of the same stuff so there was no point sharing a photo again. :P But recently I have found myself getting out my phone to take photos of food when I go to new places, when I want to send my parents photos and I might be away, or just to recommend restaurants!
I am far from being a cook but I remember cooking things a while ago and feeling damn well proud of it – of course I was going to Instagram it ????
13/05/2016 at 8:04 amFood is something we all have it common, so it makes sense to me that we want to share it and sometimes it just looks so pretty! :D
14/05/2016 at 9:44 amHonestly, I find a lot of inspiration for allergy-friendly recipes by looking up food photos on Instagram. I bought an allergy-free cookbook, but…it was advertised to be more than what it’s cracked up to be, so it’s useless.
I like to study how others place things. My specialty is in nature photos, and I love non-centered subjects—it actually peeves me when my family seems to insist on having something right in the middle. I’m trying to learn food placement to help me more with food photos, but have found other food bloggers’ photos help more with that.
14/05/2016 at 9:54 amI’ve no problems with people sharing food photos since I do the same. However, Instagram and I have an up and down relationship. While I like it, I hate how there’s no way to share photos through the browser. I’d much rather do that instead of just doing it on my phone.
The only negative I see with food photo shares is that it makes me hungry when I see them! Especially when it’s like midnight or something XD
14/05/2016 at 1:56 pmGreat post! All the points are really good, especially the one about promoting businesses.
15/05/2016 at 6:45 pmI’m no chef but I started cooking meals this April and surprised to know they were all delicious on my first try! Also, I learned that posting photos of food you ate at a certain re staurant makes you feel good especially when you saw those likes. My heart is melting. Btw, those food you posted on your blog looks tasty.Im craving for some!
16/05/2016 at 5:04 pmThat’s it. I’m officially famous now ;-)
I adore Instagram for food posts. They make up a huge portion of my feed, and are nearly all I put on there. I love scrolling through the real ideas of what I could have for tea, and I even scroll my own photos if I am stuck for inspiration when making the shopping list.
Thank you for featuring me!
Rachel x
18/05/2016 at 4:29 pmThe Inelegant Wench
I love your photos. Do you use a special app or techniques to get them to look so good? My food pics are not good enough to post on Insta IMO lol.
19/02/2017 at 1:50 am