Food Porn: Stop the Picture Posting

Looking at delicious food makes a person’s mouth water with the thought of its delectable taste, and with the new food-porn craze, individuals have become obsessed with photos of food, posting delectable food pictures on social media platforms. This makes people ravenous with hunger when seeing their friends’ pictures of delicious food with a “#foodporn.” Consisting of pictures of delicious food decorated and presented in a desirable manner, food porn has swept the nation in a fashionable sensation. The most popular sights in which people waste hours staring at delicious food are Tasteologie, Food porn daily, Foodgawker, and Tastespotting. The term, food porn, was first used by food critics and photographers, but because of social media, it soon became a worldwide craze. However, food porn does not deserve the widespread appreciation that it receives, as it is simply a collection of pictures of food, providing the world with yet another meaningless craze.

Food porn causes many to crave a specific type of food so they will travel long distances to buy their desired food. This creates procrastination among people who are dying to try and find their desired food because of the time they spend wandering just to find that specific food. Many travel to different cities to eat at restaurants with provocative food. Instead of spending hours ogling other people’s pictures of food or wasting valuable money wandering the world, one could be investing in good food that would actually fill their stomachs.

The food may be pleasing to the eyes and very tasty, but the quantity is often never enough, leaving people out of cash and with empty stomachs. According to the LA Times, celebrity chef Grant Achatz’s Alinea in Chicago began selling tickets for reservations to tasting menu meals this summer. At up to $265 a ticket, they sold out in hours, even though the food served was miniscule. Popular restaurants like Alinea serve small portions of food at outrageous prices. This leads people to spend all of their money on fun-sized meals.

While multiple people spend enormous amounts of money to satisfy their food porn cravings, according the United States Department of Agriculture, 20% or more of U.S. children are living in households with inconsistent amounts of food. Looking at food porn does not fill the stomach. The people who spend tons of money satisfying their food-porn addiction could be donating some of that money to help starving children. They could save some of that money for more intelligent investments in food or other items. When people post pictures on social media, most are concerned about the filters they should put on it to make it look better. This amounts to wasting more time than they should. Food porn simply amounts to bragging rights and nothing else other than gaining attention.

The more time people spend looking at food porn, the less good things come to the world because too many people are concerned about the pictures and the place the food is sold. People should not further their addiction to food porn because the obsession will not doing anything good to the world or their wallet.