Reel Life: Social Media In Food

    

    I don't have or use Instagram. 

    Weird, right? At a glance, it seems like pretty much everyone does, and has become a nexus for the food world's current approach to things.

    There are lots of reasons I personally don't- safety, accessibility, and data farming concerns, among others. But the most important one for me? Doing without it lets me maintain a more well-balanced perspective.

    Sure, it might be interesting to see what other professionals are up to. But the food world is very well connected, and it's not hard for me to just ask around and stay equally well informed.

    Most people really don't like showing off their mistakes in front of an audience, no matter how small, which means the internet typically only gets the good stuff. "The camera eats first", is what I often hear people say- screw that, I'm hungry.

    Relatably, given that much of the internet thrives on hateclicks, gossip, outright lies, and a constant State of Argumentative Discourse, even great successes can catch all sorts of hell if they're seen at the wrong time or by the wrong sort of people. No matter how small a person's online presence, it remains a distinct possibility, and something I'd really rather not deal with on the regular. Chefs and other food professionals have enough worries already- undue harassment from the unqualified is one I consider well worth avoiding.

    Remember this as well, trite as it might sound: Social media is a highlight reel. What you see is aggressively tailored, tweaked, isolated, and curated for a possible or probable audience. What you don't see is everything else. 

-A beautiful plate of food? Taking the time to get that perfect picture might have let it go cold.
-A gorgeous vista? A hundred attempts for the perfect gleam, time wasted that could have been spent enjoying the view.
-Friends and fellows all together in fun? A car got a ticket, a wallet went missing, and some of those smiling ended up heaving in an alleyway an hour later. 

    You can't really know the real costs of those perfect pictures. The face behind the camera could be feeling like Hide the Pain Harold looks... but they'll never tell.

    The most important part of a meal is the experience. It's not just the look, the flavor, or even the company. It's all of those things and more, unable to be distilled and shared by such a tepid medium in anything close to its entirety. Worse still, in the attempt to do so, the essential and ephemeral essence of that experience is tainted and lost.

    Why throw that feeling away? The effort of the artisan who created a singular experience only seems sabotaged by trying to preserve perfection.

Enjoy.