Food
for Thought: Identity Online vs Offline
By
Sylvie Wharton
Image
Retrieved from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/april/food-review-language-041014.html
Food is possibly one of the easiest topics
to speak about with reference to Instagram, I would even go as far as to say
that before Instagram photographing and sharing what foods we are eating has
never been so important. Hi
and Bye Productions (2012) video gives a great commentary on the question
of reality versus virtuality of our use of food in the online social network of
Instagram. Although food plays a large
role in the construction and re-enforcement of identity and with reference to
lecture this week that “food is an expression of identity” (Kuttainen, 2015),
this blogs purpose is to focus more on exploring the validity of this identity
online versus offline.
If a user was to upload only vegan meals
and accompanied the images with the caption “#vegan” that user’s audience would
likely assume this user is a vegan.
Whether or not that user is a practising vegan in their everyday life
remains unknown to their online following.
As well as constructing an identity user’s can also associate themselves
with particular communities depending on the images of food they upload communities
such as vegan, paleo, raw food, vegetarian etc, again whether or not users
belong to these communities offline remains unknown to those online.
Atkins and Bowler (2001, p. 282) discuss with
reference to the 17th and 18th century the use of food
among urban-nobility to compete with each other and also indicate prestige. Users wanting
to appear trendy, classy or privileged can choose to post images of either
foods with this association or meals at certain restaurants with the same
associations. How frequently the user
can afford to dine or enjoys eating these foods generally remains unknown to
the user’s online following.
The images we post are more or less because we want
to tell our audience something about ourselves, if I want to appear healthy I’m
going to post a salad I ate one day, but the reality is I may have had Kentucky
Fried Chicken for the six other days that week.
References
Atkins, P., & Bowler, I. (2001). Food In Society: Economy, Culture,
Geography. New York, NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
Hi and Bye Productions. (2012, October 8). Why do people always Instagram their food?. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPHVtg8ZMEI
Kuttainen, V. (2015). BA1002: Our Space: Networds, narratives and the making of place,
Lecture 8: Food Networks.[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
http://learnjcu.edu.au
Just expanding on what you said about the assumptions of someone being vegan from posting content that would highly suggest veganism as part of their personal identity, even if they are in fact not vegan. A large number of people, much like the trend/trendsetters known as hipsters, these people can also usually be assumed to be putting on a sort of facade for the online audience of their friend group, pretending just for a moment that they are vegan, to see the reaction this garners, then trying out the next social trend, using process of elimination to find the trendiest way to create 'socio-cultural factors'(Atkins & Bowler, 2001) for consumption.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Atkins, P., & Bowler, I. (2001). The origins of taste. In P. Atkins & I. Bowler, Food in society (1st ed., pp. 272-295). London: Arnold.
I have enjoyed reading both the blog and the previous comment as they provide insights that align with my ideas on the topic. According to Kuttainen (2015), food is a transformer of culture and food is a repository of culture (a mirror of culture). This concept can be seen through users uploading vegan meals. As was previously stated, eating vegan is a current hipster fad operating in society at the moment. This fad proves that food is a transformer of culture; vegan meals are transforming the culture of Instagram users. Eating vegan also acts a mirror of culture as it portray what society values and privileges.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Kuttainen, V. (2015). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 8 notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu/jcu.edu.au
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSylvie, like you stated on your blog, the posts that users publish online, will also alter the perception their followers have of them. Even with Instagram considered as a community itself, their are other minor communities within this platform that may use tastes for food, or diet habits as a way of constructing their individual identity. For example, veganism and vegetarianism may be trends, but in creating tags or sharing posts in regards to these, such people become connected. As a result, they are able to create a collective identity who can promote and present their beliefs more widely. As Bourdieu (cited in Atkins et al. 2001, p. 272) wrote, “tastes for food and other commodities may become a badge of identity”. This demonstrates, whether their posts are an accurate reflection or not, how food photography can also portray self-identity as well as community identity.
ReplyDeleteReference list
Atkins, P. and Bowler, I. (2001). The origins of taste. In P. Atkins and I. Bowler (Eds.), Food in society: Economy, culture, geography (pp. 272-295). London, Great Britain: Arnold.
COMMENT
ReplyDeleteBuilding off what you mentioned in the final paragraph, performance has become a large portion of our online personas. We construct them, but, as you mentioned with your vegan example, we are in turn constructed (and constrained) by them. As McNeill (2012) mentioned in There is no “I” in Network, “The interface of the individual with the technological … institution of the social networking site … constructs lives and narratives”. Narrative is an essential element in the creation of meaning, and food has a very long narrative associated with both its production and consumption. In hindsight, it was inevitable that food/meal photography would become ubiquitous on social networking sites—it is one of the lowest common denominators among humans, and it allows users to present, construct, and reinforce their socio-economic status without unseemly bragging. Most users are likely, on some level, aware of this – no one posts a photo of poorly presented food after all, regardless of how expensive it is, unless the post has an element of self-deprecation. It is not about the reality of the taste of the food, but rather the ‘virtuality’ of its looks.
REFERENCE
McNeill, L. (2012). There is no "I" in Network: social networking sites and posthuman Auto/biography. Biography, 35(1), 65-82.
COMMENT
ReplyDeleteBuilding off what you mentioned in the final paragraph, performance has become a large portion of our online personas. We construct them, but, as you mentioned with your vegan example, we are in turn constructed (and constrained) by them. As McNeill (2012) mentioned in There is no “I” in Network, “The interface of the individual with the technological … institution of the social networking site … constructs lives and narratives”. Narrative is an essential element in the creation of meaning, and food has a very long narrative associated with both its production and consumption. In hindsight, it was inevitable that food/meal photography would become ubiquitous on social networking sites—it is one of the lowest common denominators among humans, and it allows users to present, construct, and reinforce their socio-economic status without unseemly bragging. Most users are likely, on some level, aware of this – no one posts a photo of poorly presented food after all, regardless of how expensive it is, unless the post has an element of self-deprecation. It is not about the reality of the taste of the food, but rather the ‘virtuality’ of its looks.
REFERENCE
McNeill, L. (2012). There is no "I" in Network: social networking sites and posthuman Auto/biography. Biography, 35(1), 65-82.
An added point to the construction of online identity( I'll use the same example of veganism). Because of the way the internet records previous statements and such it can be difficult to move on to a new construction of your identity especially if it is strongly linked to your meatspace life, such as being a primary part of your income, social life etc. In the case of veganism there is an amazing amount of vitriol between vegans( including between types of vegans) and ex-vegans. So much so that there have been reports of people bieng harassed for leaving one group to another. The site http://letthemeatmeat.com/ covers one side of this and this is far from the only example of a constructed online identity ( realistic or not) that can cause both benefit, community, income etc., or detrement, harassment, loss of income and others.
ReplyDelete