4 WebsiteCompass Feature Story 5 Ways Social Media Changed HowWe Eat Social media has played a role in reshaping our eating habits in ways including these: 1. Brought Screens to the Dinner Table. The dinner table used to be a tech-free zone. Now phones are often as handy to grab as salt and pepper shakers, since many people feel they must stay connected at all times. Plus, you need a phone to take photos of your meal at a trendy restaurant or show off your latest cooking accomplishment at home. 2. Made Us More Adventurous With Food. Thanks in part to cooking posts on social media, we’re craving flavors from faraway lands and taking more risks with spices and other ingredients. Supermarkets have responded by stocking aisles with international food items that used to be nearly impossible to get, and restaurants are popping up that satisfy the demand for a more worldly palate. 3. Inspired Culinary Tourism. If wanderlust and food culture had a baby, it would be culinary tourism. More of us are picking travel destinations based primarily on the meals we’ll be able to enjoy there—meals we saw featured on social media. Outdoor food markets, bakeries, and restaurants are replacing museums and traditional tourist attractions in order of priority. 4. Steered Us Toward Smaller Meals. After decades of eating three square meals a day, social media has encouraged many of us to shift our focus to more frequent, but smaller, plates of food like tapas and dim sum spreads. Sitting down to a massive plate of food is starting to feel almost passé. The advantage to this approach is the opportunity to try a few bites of a new dish without a huge commitment. 5. Demonstrated the Importance of Presentation. Your social media feeds no doubt include plenty of incredible food photos (from restaurants as well as friends) designed to make people take notice and feel a little envious. A key to these shots is the plating, which includes plate selection, food placement, drizzled sauces, and colorful garnishes (as well as the photography basics of lighting and composition). After getting a taste of all this on social media, you may even be paying more attention to how you serve meals at home! If you look through old photo albums, you may see birthday cakes and Thanksgiving turkeys in the center of tables with family gathered around them. However, you probably won’t see close-up shots of carefully plated food. Similarly, old cookbooks typically feature recipes for dishes that may seem bland to today’s tastes, with the only nod to international cuisine being something like Taco Salad. FAST FACT: Culinary travel has become the fastestgrowing segment in luxury tourism, with travelers prioritizing food as a gateway to culture and heritage. Source: https://spaexecutive.com/2024/12/10/2025-travel-trends-culinary-travel/
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