Effects Of Social Media In New Media

Food in New Media

Since the birth of social media, and as it increasingly becomes woven into the fabric of our daily lives, one question is continuously raised: Is social media helping or hurting us? Everyone is familiar with debates about new media’s effects on our reading, writing, attention span, communication skills, etc. Some argue that social media is ruining us while others embrace the new technology and choose to look at the positive change that it has brought about. An aspect of our lives that we don’t tend to discuss so often, though it is an integral part, is our relationship with food. In this review I will discuss research centering around the general theme of the positive or negative effects that social media has on a user’s

Many sources agree that the issue is not so straightforward and that interaction with social media can have both positive and negative effects on users’ relationship with food. Firstly, social media can be associated with increased food choices. Vaterlaus, et al., surveyed people about the way their food choices have personally been affected by social media. They found that social media gives users a huge database of recipes and ideas for both healthy and unhealthy foods. Websites such as Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter make recipes readily available and can make it more likely for people to try them out due to easy access. However, recipes for sweets and unhealthy foods are also more readily available through the internet. Participants in the study reported that viewing these recipes could cause them to make the unhealthy choice of eating when they are not really hungry, or cause them to purchase or attempt to cook unhealthy food that they would not otherwise (Vaterlaus et al., 2015). Multiple participants revealed that seeing images or recipes for desserts online had triggered them to buy or eat similar unhealthy foods. One young man, however, mentioned Twitter as a source of inspiration for his health and fitness, stating that his relationship with that media platform was a positive one. (Vaterlaus et al.,