Video Transcript:
Introduction:
Hi, my name is Ben and for my ethnography project, I focused on food accounts and the “foodie” culture on Instagram and the motivators behind it.
If someone is a foodie, it means that they have a great interest in food, specifically, good food. Social media has expanded the horizons for food lovers across the globe as people share photos and videos of meals that they have eaten, seen, or cooked. Especially now, during COVID19, this culture has seen a burst of activity as many people are at home and have created their own accounts to share their own food creations. However, many accounts seemed to hold different themes for themselves and focused on posting certain content with a certain message – each was structured very differently from one another. This leads me to my research question: “What are the different types of motivators for food accounts to post food?”
My Methods:
Although the subculture of food is vast and spans across multiple social platforms, I decided to narrow it to Instagram due to the high volume of posts that I was able to find. From here I would conduct extensive observations into the subject matter of a post, their captions, tags, and interactions with other foodie accounts. I also used secondary research to further support my findings.
Interviews:
For my interviews to get first-hand information; I created a google form which I sent out to hundreds of accounts in hopes of getting as many responses as possible. In my google form, I asked my research question and also supported it with more in-depth questions to get more context.
Here are the questions that I asked:
In total, I only received 2 responses, although, they were still very helpful in my research.
Results:
After conducting extensive observations into this subculture, I found that every account’s motivation for posting food ranged from being a form of stress relief, activism, and a means for endorsing products.
Discussion:
I have observed that there are a few types of accounts on Instagram that post food: accounts owned by regular foodie members who post their daily or occasional food excursions, accounts owned by foodies who have a theme to their posts to entice viewers to think or eat differently such as being vegan, gluten-free, organic, or cook homemade meals, and then accounts run by food companies who endorse influencers or post their own content to get more people to buy their product. Many personify their message with staged photos that look appealing or satisfying to the eye.
As seen on the left, this user is expressing her pride in cooking something herself and is eager to share her recipe and process of cooking in her caption. The account owner was also one of the two interviewed and stated that she had found posting her foods as a mental detox.
In the middle is the Lays company Instagram account where we see foods with lays chips as an ingredient – such as a pizza using lays chips, or a snack plate uses. There are also celebrities shown posing with the chip bag and the lays logo facing the camera.
On the right is an account posting a mouthwatering photo of a vegan brownie to show a viewer that going vegan is tasty and supports with a tantalizing caption using yummy adjectives such as “marshmallowy” or “melting in your mouth”.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, food posts are used as an instrument to benefit Instagram account owners – from relaxing to spreading the word or making more money.
I believe a good way to continue this research would be by changing the perspective of the accounts and aim observations towards the viewers. It would be interesting to figure out things such as “Who are the people who view food accounts, what do they like to see on average like to view?” “How many people try new recipes they see on social media?” “Did anyone change their diet due to a food post?” “How many viewers of endorsed products actually purchased the product?” Thus, overall concluding in “Is posting food on Instagram a universal benefactor for all.” Thank you.
The Digital Ethnography Project 