How social media is influencing generations on what they eat
- Apr 8
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 9
For the last 20 years and for the foreseeable future, social media will continue to be an unstoppable force shaping food trends. How has this medium become such an influencer and why should we be worried, EdibleIntel examines.
Visual Dominance and "Instagrammability":
Social media's visual nature, particularly platforms like Instagram and TikTok, has profoundly impacted food trends, elevating aesthetics to near equal importance with taste. Restaurants and food businesses now actively design "Instagrammable" dishes, focusing on vibrant colours, artistic plating, and dramatic presentations, sometimes prioritizing visual appeal over practicality. This has also fostered a significant culture of food photography and styling, with both amateurs and professionals showcasing their creations and shaping how people perceive and desire food.
Trend Acceleration and Virality:
Social media can accelerate the lifecycle of food trends. A dish or ingredient can go from obscurity to widespread popularity (and sometimes back again) within a very short timeframe due to viral posts and challenges. Platforms like TikTok have given rise to numerous food challenges and fads (e.g., split the G Guinness challenge , homebrewing kombucha, gluttony food challenges), these are often driven by their shareability and visual appeal. Social media influencers and food bloggers have become powerful voices in shaping food trends. The rise of hot and spicy food has been driven largely by the chilli and how it entertains online from eating challenges to the general enjoyment of spicy food.
Democratization of Food Knowledge and Discovery:
Social media has made recipes and cooking tips more accessible to a wider audience. Short-form video content, in particular, has revolutionised how people learn to cook. Users can easily discover and learn about diverse cuisines, regional specialties, and unique ingredients from around the world through social media content. Social media provides a direct line of communication between consumers and food businesses. Restaurants and brands can use platforms to promote new dishes, engage with customers, and gather feedback.
Impact on Food Culture and Consumption Habits:
Social media often encourages the pursuit of novel and unique food experiences that are worth sharing online. This can drive demand for unusual dishes or dining concepts. Seeing visually appealing food constantly on social media can create a sense of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), prompting people to try trending dishes or visit popular food spots.
Social media has amplified the "foodie" culture, where people actively seek out and share their culinary adventures. Social media can both promote and sometimes misrepresent dietary trends (e.g., keto, paleo, veganism). While it can raise awareness, it can also contribute to misinformation.
Challenges and Criticisms:
In most cases vloggers will create content that maximises advertising revenue, breaking the boundary of "church and state" affecting the impartiality of content. However if our passion for naughty eating is lived vicariously via other people's actions, there isn't too much wrong with that - effectively what is called food porn!
Focus on aesthetics over substance: The pressure to create "Instagrammable" food can sometimes lead to a focus on visual appeal at the expense of taste, quality or nutritional value.
Food tends driving unethical purchases: The global nature of social media food trends can lead to popularity of a food that is not produced ethically or in an environment that is favourable to the producers, like the rise of avocados as a breakfast alternative on toast.
Misinformation and unverified claims: Dietary advice and nutritional information shared on social media can often be unverified or misleading.
Social media has undeniably become a powerful and pervasive force in shaping food trends globally over the last decade and continues to do so. It has democratised food discovery, accelerated trend cycles and placed a significant emphasis on the visual aspects of eating. While it offers opportunities for connection and culinary exploration, it also presents challenges related to authenticity, sustainability and the potential for misinformation. Sadly the food that attracts the most attention tends to be unhealthy, meat based street food, so it is the monitsation of these videos that drives food trends not the celebration of something new and exciting. While these food bloggers continue to earn a living from videos, it will be ad revenue that determines what we see and what could drive a generation to eat poorly.
However its not all bad, food vloggers educate, entertain and drive us to eat more interesting and international food. Consuming healthy food, widening our choices and eating naughty snacks in moderation is all good fun. Below is EdibleIntel's subjective list of good food channels (youtube) that entertain and inform (not always based on popularity).
Fun
First We Feast: "Hot ones" the famous are interviewed while eating increasingly hotter chicken (or veggie) wings.
Dish: Perhaps the best foodie interview format with Michelin star chef Angela Hartnett cooking combined with the interview wit of Nick Grimshaw.
General interest
Munchies: A bit of everything: travel, cookery, trends.
Insider Food: Fun features combines with interesting food items
Food history
Tasting History: Informative and popular food history site
Townsends: 18th Century US cookery
Travel or regional food focus
Pete's Pans: Focused on France, Spain and Portugal. The best recipe orientated channel for these regions. A favourite of EdibleIntel!
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown: The gold standard for food culture (although it covers other culture) on TV and the internet - we miss you Anthony!
Japanese Noodles Udon Soba Kyoto Hyogo: Simple coverage of Japanese restaurants preparing and serving noodle recipes. Great for looking at the ergonomics of Japanese restaurant work patterns.
Yummy Boys: Asian street food at its best, no fuss, music or annoying voice over.
Travel Thirsty: Interesting videos of unusual food.
The Best Food Review Show: Not actually the best but certainly entertaining.
Cookery
Ramsey in 10: Part of the Gordon Ramsey channel, love him or hate him, the man can cook and these short videos really help lift your cooking.
Andy Cooks: Quick and informative videos to help learn cooking.
Fallow: From the restaurant in London, chef Jack and Will bestow a wealth of cooking knowledge.
Epicurious: Comparisons on amateur to chef cookery as well as other how to cook videos.
