Dong Yi Kang / Foodporn /Thurday 1-3pm

During the recent several years, a new trend called 'foodporn' has emerged on the SNS world. SNS users(especially women) are uploading their recent mouth-watering feasts on Facebook, Twitter, and especially Instagram, adding hashtags, which functions as a search word to draw in those interested in specific topics. People upload pictures of the T-bone steak that they had last night, meal prepared by loving mothers, and McMuffins that they managed to grab during commute. Why have these 'foodporn' pictures gotten so popular? 

 

The first reason behind these flooding foodporn pictures is the lipstick effect. The lipstick effect is an effect in which the consumption of low-priced goods that could satisfy people easily increases. Those who upload foodporn pictures are normally people in their teen ages or those in 20s and 30s. These generation of people are those who are struggling every day to get a decent job, or working hard to make a living. From their struggles, perhaps the most efficient way of reimbursing themselves during or after a hard day is buying a cup of venti-sized chocolate frapuccino from Starbucks or grabbing a fancy mini-sized cake from a bakery and posting the pictures for people to see. 

The second reason may be the social need for people to interact others, and to identify with others. We live in a lonely society. Students are spending hours studying, and workers are spending their days working hard. Time is scarce, and not much time could be spared to meet friends and grab a beer or a burger. Some people are almost scared to be seen eating alone in public, and I think and feel that this may be the modern lonely people's way of making friends and communicating their interests(which is obviously, food) with strangers. Receiving friendly comments as "what a nice cake, I love the fillings!' may satiate the SNS users' need of love and belonging.

The third reason may be pointed towards the people's self-consciousness of their body shape. This may be ironic that people are uploading pictures of greasy, mouthwatering food when they are on diet, but it may be modern people's way of gaining vicarious satisfaction while dieting. There are actually internet broadcasters who eat tremendous amounts of food in front of the camera, and a high percentage of viewers are people who are trying to refrain from food.

To sum up, foodporn has been gaining popularity all over the world, and people are dying to upload the pictures of their recent meal. The dwindling economy, the need of the lonely modern people to interact with others, and people's need for vicarious satisfaction may be the force driving people to upload more and more pictures of food.