Category: Uncategorized

What happened to Hannah Ann during this most recent season of the Bachelor.

Dear Julia,

Recently, I’ve been getting into reality TV dating shows. It started out as just watching an episode of the Bachelor because it was on TV and the remote was too far away to change the channel. Then I watched the whole season, and the next two after that. Since then I’ve binged seasons of Love Island, Love is Blind, and The Circle. I totally get how trashy these shows are, but I love watching them and I don’t know why. Is that a bad thing?

- CanWeTalkAboutJessicaAndMark34

Hi CanWeTalkAboutJessicaAndMark34,

As much as I would love to discuss Jessica and Mark from Love is Blind and explain how passionately my sister and I screamed at the TV as we watched their relationship unravel, I want to figure out why it’s so easy to get obsessed with these people and their dating lives. 

I’ll admit, I used to think I was above these kinds of shows. I would casually watch the Bachelor with my friends, but mostly to laugh at the cringiest moments and grace everyone with my hilarious commentary (at least, I thought it was funny). It all seemed so fake to me, and I couldn’t imagine actually caring about who these people ended up with, because most of it was scripted anyway. It wasn’t until I was horribly bored last summer that I watched an entire season (50 hours of my life I can never get back), of the UK’s Love Island, and was hooked. 

In Love Island, and a lot of these types of shows, cameras are on the contestants 24 hours a day. I watched the “islanders” go swimming, workout, put on makeup in the morning, and even teach one of the other contestants about Brexit. “You have the illusion of knowing this person and of having spent time with them because in a real sense you have,” says Eleanor Gordon-Smith, a philosopher, radio producer, and author. “So, you feel like you’re in a position to blame them and to resent them, and oddly sometimes to forgive them, as you would if you were in an ordinary two-way personal relationship.”

When the season of Love Island ended, with three couples who were madly in love (and still somehow looked good in bathing suits after 2 months of sitting by a pool), I looked up these people to see what they were doing after the show. 

All of them had broken up by two months after the show ended. And many of the contestants had plastic surgery before going on the show, which was hard to notice with well executed camera angles and lighting. 

It was a shock, and I felt kind of stupid for getting so sucked in. But, according to a study by Psychology Today, liking reality TV doesn’t mean we’re any less intelligent of people. Instead, us fans tend to be interested in immoral behavior and gaining status. And because these contestants are seemingly normal people, just like us, we get so caught up and invested in their lives and want to watch them gain fame. But, the people on these shows are not quite just like all of us. They’re usually “in the top 1% looks-wise,” as Psychologist Honey Langcaster-James who worked on Love Island says. And when we compare ourselves to these people, ”it can affect our body image and self-esteem.”

Besides our view of ourselves, reality dating TV can also affect how we see our romantic relationships. As Dr. Caroll Harris, co-host of ABC’s The Screen Show, claims, “we’re never just consuming [reality TV] passively. Culture is not just entertainment after work, it’s how we form ideas about our identity and what we want in our relationships.” Personally, I started questioning a lot of things after watching Love is Blind, an “experiment” denoted “Tinder as a TV program” by a professor at University of Leicester, where contestants get engaged after two weeks without seeing each other. Two couples from the show have been married for over a year now. 

Should I stop overthinking relationships so much? Are you supposed to just know from the first conversation? Should I have swiped right on that guy who made a Harry Potter reference in his profile (a plus), but didn’t seem that interesting otherwise? Was that my future life-partner and I was too judgy?

These are questions that you’re all probably considering. But try not to. “Reality TV encourages an unrealistic view of finding your dream relationship,” says relationship expert Rori Sassoon. “Most people are [now] shopping fast and moving on, instead of getting to know people.” These shows are normalizing fast and rash dating decisions in the real world. Although it seems like this type of fast-track dating works on these shows, out of the 24 seasons of the Bachelor and 15 of the Bachelorette, 23 couples are still together. With about 30 contestants on each season, that’s a 2% success rate (on eHarmony, 75% of users meet their spouse within a year. Just a suggested alternative for trying out for a reality show if you’re really looking for love).

Even with all of this information, I don’t want to give up reality dating TV. It’s a weird kind of entertainment, that makes you feel kind of guilty but you also can’t tear your eyes away. And that might be okay. In recent years, reality dating shows have shown greater racial diversity, and a few incorporate LGBTQ contestants (Love Is Blind, Are You The One, and The Circle), which could decrease prejudices in the dating world. A lot of shows also strip contestants of all technology, which could encourage viewers to put away their phones while on dates. And apparently, we could take some lessons from Love Is Blind when evaluating our potential political leaders. Danielle J. Lindemann, a Professor at Lehigh who studies reality TV speculated how much more candidate’s policies and stances would be focused on without knowing their race, gender, or party affiliation.

So, yes, watching reality TV is probably not great for us. But if you’re like me and not particularly motivated to stop, then just keep in mind that the people who go on these shows aren’t just like us, and we shouldn’t necessarily compare ourselves to them or how they handle relationships. 

Otherwise, binge away!

Always yours,

Julia

What someone should’ve told the bat in Wuhan.

Dear Julia,

I read your last post about how social media during a crisis like COVID-19 can add to people’s anxiety. But what about memes? I feel like they’re the only things getting me through quarantine, but I feel kind of guilty being on social media so much if it’s just hurting my mental health.

- SpreadMemesNotGerms04

Dear SpreadMemesNotGerms04,

Great question! Although there is research behind staying off of social media at this time to not overload your brain with conflicting news reports, it doesn’t take an expert to know that people get joy out of looking at funny memes and videos on the Internet. Even during this time of social distancing, memes have allowed us to stay connected to our friends and forget about the crisis going on for a few seconds, as we laugh over a video of a sockpuppet eating cars. As journalist Judy Holland put it, “social media is turning social distancing into just physical distancing.”

There is some actual science behind why we like memes, and why there are so many of them right now. Memes have been studied starting from 1976, when evolutionary biologists coined the term “meme” as a vehicle for cultural information that is transmitted between people, similar to genes. And the Internet has continued to increase the speed at which this information is passed, so that now when I send memes to my friends I often get hit with “I’ve seen that already haha” (and you know they’re not actually ‘haha’-ing a second time. Crushing). Researchers at the University of Minnesota have come up with three systematic qualities of a meme that goes (and I hate to say this) viral. The first is memes that are genuinely useful to a human host (again, human host, so sorry). The next is memes that are easily imitated by human brains, and the last is that they answer questions that our brains find of interest.

In my own enjoyable research through the coronavirus memes of the Internet, I have identified five main genres of coronavirus memes, and have set out to identify why these different types of memes have gained popularity, who they’re targeting, and how they may be helping, or hurting, our mental health during this time. 

“Zooming in to Work”

Whether you’re zooming in to a conference meeting or a lecture, people all over the world are being asked to complete their usual workload in a completely different environment, without the same resources or normalcy of a routine. Memes have been circulating that depict people commuting to work via shower rod and frames of people and/or animals working or Zooming from home. This type of corona-meme is the epitome of “relatable.” The feeling of getting and understanding a meme is like being a part of a social structure enforced by that meme. It creates “an indirect buffer” through which people can convey the struggle and stress of working from home to others, normalizing the new world of Zoom and building a network of support between strangers on the Internet. 

“Wash Your Hands and Stay Inside”

Lots of memes right now are advising people on safety measures to take during this pandemic, and they do it in a much more lighthearted and memorable way than a news reporter. There’s an especially large trend of memes with different songs other than the typical “Happy Birthday” to wash your hands to, including the quadratic formula. There are also memes glorifying the use of hand sanitizer. These memes act as a sort of propaganda and have the power to influence the behavior of the recipient, and in this case they could be improving the hygiene of viewers (I felt much more thorough when washing my hands to Britney Spears’s “Toxic”). 

In this category, there are also more targeted memes that look down on people who aren’t hunkering down and staying inside. According to Rosanna Guadagno, a researcher at Stanford University, these more negative memes could be resonating with people because “if you think [the meme’s message] reflects poorly on the people who engage in that behavior, you’ll choose not to engage in that behavior.” These memes could be leading to self-reflection, and give an opportunity to those who just booked flights to Europe to maybe rethink their decisions. But also, with any type of content that is pushing a certain viewpoint, it’s important to think about who created this message and what they’re trying to convey, to be able to discern which pieces of information should influence how we act. 

“Adapt and Overcome”

I have been astounded by the creativity (and probably boredom) of people who have adapted to the concept of social distancing so early into this quarantine. Balconies of apartment buildings have become concert venues, workout classes, and somehow a place to run a marathon. I’ve come across a DIY treadmill and a platform called “Ok Zoomer,” a dating service for college students that operates through Zoom. This phenomenon follows all three components of a “viral” meme: they’re genuinely useful by providing us with activities to do while we’re all stuck inside and ways to interact with others while still social distancing, they are simple activities that are easily imitated and understood (well, except for the marathon), and they answer the question of what the (insert word of choice here) are we supposed to do while we’re isolated. These are the kind of memes that make us remember why social media could boost morale during this time, as opposed to the news-overload. 

“2020 Sucks”

The memes I’ve talked about so far at least look on the bright side a little. But of course are memes that tell it like it is: this sucks and we don’t know when it’s going to get better. Although a lot of these memes might make us laugh, some of them might be hurting us more than helping us. As John Suler, a professor of psychology at Rider University, states, “memes often carry an idea to an extreme…which makes them feel even more powerful as a form of social influence.” Making claims about the year as a whole rather than just coronavirus is an exaggeration that, from what we know about how fast memes travel and how great of an influence they have, can affect people’s perception of this pandemic and might lead to a widespread belief that things are worse or will last longer than they actually will. 

Something important to keep in mind is that memes can easily spread misinformation, as they tend to stick in our heads longer than normal news not accompanied by a funny picture. Just like as you’re combing through news to identify what’s “fake,” make sure you’re able to separate the humor of these memes from the message they’re actually getting across, as it is probably an exaggeration of the real situation. 

“Penguins”

I couldn’t end on “2020 sucks.” 

There have been some not directly virus related memes and videos, and one of the most popular has been the penguins who got to explore an aquarium in Chicago because it was emptied out of patrons. Why has this event exploded over social media when we have coronavirus to worry about? Studies have shown that videos that lead to a stronger emotional response increased the intent people have to share it with others. So, the answer is most likely because we have coronavirus to worry about, and penguins figuring out how to navigate down a flight of stairs gives us a joy and innocence that we’re not finding in other aspects of life right now. Many other zoos are also doing live streams of their animals including the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Panda Cam and Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sea Otter Cam, which I did not know I needed in my life until now. 

Overall, memes are doing a lot of great things for us. But like all of our news intake, we need to be conscious of what they’re trying to say to not get caught up in exaggerations.

And for those of you that are the ones making memes and trying to go viral, just stick to doing it on the Internet. 

Always yours,

Julia

Dear Julia,

Me and all my friends at school were sent home because of coronavirus It’s all anyone is talking about right now: in my house, with my friends, and on social media, and it’s kind of driving me insane. How do I survive the next however-long stuck at home, taking classes online, and keeping myself safe?

LookingforPurellontheBlackMarket22

Hello LookingforPurellontheBlackMarket22,

Yes, this absolutely sucks. I haven’t been able to open my phone or have a conversation without coronavirus coming up (I’ve decided to include cartoon viruses for each mention of COVID-19 in this post to dispel some fear/anxiety, so don’t get overwhelmed by the amount of links: they’re cute). 

On March 11, there were 20 million coronavirus related mentions on social media according to Sprinklr, a social media analytics platform. That’s like if every single resident of New York took out their phones and posted about coronavirus on the same day. The CDC recommends taking breaks from social media, because “hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be upsetting.” And there is a lot of evidence to back this up, relating to the concept of emotional contagion, which is the transfer of feelings between people that, fueled by a pandemic like the one caused by COVID-9, can create widespread panic. Professor Sigal Barsade at the University of Pennsylvania advises against social media usage at this time, and warns that “emotional contagion, unless we get a hold on it, is going to greatly amplify the damage caused by COVID-19.” 

Even as I shut off my phone my mom yells at me to “social distance” myself from my sister, but as we live in the same house and were watching the same TV show, that consisted of me moving a few inches away from her on the couch. I don’t think that avoiding social media is enough to lower our anxiety related to the virus; it’s all anyone is talking about. Also, in stressful situations a lot of us turn to social media and our phones for comfort (which definitely isn’t helping at all, but we all still do it). 

I’ve been home for over a week, and only now am I choosing to face the reality of the situation: coronavirus is not going away anytime soon, so it’s time to start figuring out ways to make the best out of being a self-quaranteen. 

To lower the effects of emotional contagion, we can practice controlling our own anxiety in order to not worsen anyone else’s and to make the best out of this situation. Dr. Brewer, a psychiatrist and writer for The New Yorker, writes that the way to decrease anxiety (in general and associated with coronavirus) is “to become aware of two things: that we are getting anxious or panicking and what the result is.” Acknowledging your fears, worries, and annoyances and understanding that maybe some of them are irrational or can be controlled, will gradually decrease the frequency of these kinds of thoughts, making you feel better and freeing up your mental energy for other things unrelated to COVID-19 (example: if you get into a fight with your sister because you found a lot of the clothes you were missing in college in her closet early on in self-quarantine, it’s going to be a rough coronacation). And especially since online school is the reality for most students, we’re going to need to put ourselves in the best possible position mental health-wise to be able to do well in our classes and not lash out at our family/friends because of the stress of it all.

In the spirit of trying to decrease stress associated with coronavirus, I came up with some suggestions of ways to live your best quaranteen life. What started out as a list somehow developed into an acrostic poem, which I tried desperately to fight at first, but then couldn’t see the information being conveyed any other way. 

Care. Try to do something nice for someone each day – could be cleaning up everyone’s plate after dinner, texting your friends and checking up on them, or sharing your bottle of Purell. 

Organization. Make yourself a schedule. It’ll help a lot with schoolwork and getting into a normal routine. 

Respect. Don’t be dumb and go to public places where you could endanger other people.

Opportunity. Are there things you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had time for? Well now there’s time! Learn a new instrument, do an art project, become fluent in French, learn how to do the worm (my goal for corona season). 

Netflix. This goes along with any type of downtime or selfcare activity, because that’s still really important. There’s also Netflix Party now so you can watch with friends!

Awareness. Be aware of what’s happening in the world, but also be mindful of the emotions of your friends and family. Everyone’s going through this right now, and you’re not alone, so don’t be afraid to tell people if you’re struggling.

If you happen to come across an abundance of black market Purell, remember who gave you such great advice!

Always yours,

Julia

Dear Julia,

I’m not interested in politics at all, and the state I live in pretty much always votes for the same party, so I didn’t register to vote last year. But, I felt guilty. I want to get involved but I feel like I don’t know enough and that it won’t matter. What should I do for this election?

Politically2confused70

Hi Politically2confused70,

As the next presidential election approaches in the fall, I’ve noticed a steady increase in political conversations on campus. Just last night I walked into my friends’ room and found them looking up how many votes different states got in the electoral college, and another friend I had lunch with today asked who I was voting for in the primaries, and when I gave no response, decided to slip the name of the candidate he’s voting for periodically during the rest of the meal. 

I’m not very politically active, but I am registered to vote in Tennessee. As a native Connecticutian, I was proud that I had registered somewhere where I thought my vote would matter more. I even researched the candidates for the Tennessee Senate to make sure that they aligned with the minimal political standings that I had. I walked twenty minutes to the polls, a self-sufficient, politically informed woman ready to use her voice. When I got there, I used the little screens and buttons to vote for the senators that I had decided on, but then instead of a pop-up of an American flag saying “Yay You’ve Voted! Go You, and Go Democracy!”, as I expected, I was presented with another twenty or so candidates for positions I’d never heard of and another list of laws being proposed that I didn’t understand.  

I tried to pick the ones I thought I agreed with, but I felt guilty about making a choice that would impact a county I had just started living in when I wasn’t really informed. The sticker I received when I left with the words “I Voted” felt more like a “You Tried” than a medal for being a politically active Gen Z’er. 

And this guilt about voting seems to be true for a bunch of other young people. Since Gen Z voters are just approaching or passing the voting age, there is not much available information on our voting tendencies, but there is data on our closely related, will-hopefully-hire-us-in-the-future friends, millennials. According to Tobi Walker of the National Civic Review, voter participation from young people had gradually declined since we gained the right to vote, with millenials having only 10 million voters out of a potential 46 million in 2013. A 2002 Civic Index survey looked deeper into the differences in political involvement between younger and older generations, and found that younger citizens were just as likely as older citizens to fundraise for charity and make conscious social and political retail decisions, but were less likely to give money to a political group, volunteer for a political organization, contact a public official, or read a newspaper.

Although this information is a bit dated, I found it so interesting because I think we Gen Zs exhibit millennial tendencies in those ways as well, but are also more politically active in other senses. CIRCLE in 2018 showed a 47% increase in youth voter turnout from 2014, a sign that we may be the generation to reverse the constant decline in voting, but 59% of Gen Z’ers also list social media as their top news source. 

We seem to want to be involved and politically informed, but if we’re getting most of our information from social media, a platform for anyone to post any opinion or propaganda with little fact behind it, are we really able to form an educated opinion? (I love getting my news from Buzzfeed articles as much as the next Gen Z, but it concerns me that I’m getting political information from the same place where I can take a quiz to find out which Taylor Swift song matches my personality). 

I understand the appeal of quick news and fast facts that social media allows, especially if politics isn’t something you’re fascinated by, because we just don’t have the time or motivation to watch a two-hour debate or constantly keep up with current events. But there are alternatives. If you really want to be up to date on the world the Skimm is a great way to get fast, fun, and more objective and accurate news than reading your friend’s uncle’s political rant on Facebook. But if you’re like me and barely skim the Skimm, try to start being more in tune and curious about what’s going on outside of the college bubble. If you see something about a candidate on social media that you find interesting, or hear about a crazy thing happening in the world while on campus, look it up and ask people about it. Talk to your friends or your parents or your professors and find out more about news that is interesting to you from sources that you appreciate and can learn from. 

But learning about what’s going on in the world doesn’t mean much unless we find a way to use it. Like millennials, a lot of us are very passionate about a variety of things and issues, and will speak out about them to each other or the world from behind screens, but when it gets to taking it to the polls, I’ve heard a lot of people saying that they haven’t registered to vote because their vote won’t matter. 

First of all, hardly any states have stayed true to one political party since the creation of the electoral college, so even if your state has consistently voted for one party, anything can happen. Most importantly, it’s the principle of the thing. If we have the attitude that the say we’ve been given doesn’t mean anything, and we don’t use it, then how can we confidently speak out for issues we believe in when we don’t actually take any action in fixing them? 

Example: climate change. If you’re super passionate about the environment and #savingtheturtles, you can volunteer and clean up beaches all you want but realistically, that’s not going to cause large-scale change. And who knows if voting for candidates that promote the issues we care about (like the turtles) will either, but it’s the most we can do to try and do something bigger than ourselves.

And as the next election isn’t until November, my first step on the road to political awareness and activism is to rescue the Skimm articles out of my spam folder. 

Always yours,

Julia

Dear Julia,

How do I not overcommit myself in college?

- Avidresumebuilder18

Hi Avidresumebuilder18,

Overextending in college is a trap so many of us fall into, and from personal experience as well as feeling second-hand stress from my friends, I’ve realized how it can be a hindrance to our mental and physical health. I consider overcommitment as not just limited to academics: people often overcommit socially, forcing themselves to go out with their friends even if they need a break for fear of being left out (or as the cool kids call it, FOMO). In a study done by Avanzi et al. (2013), it was found that overcommitment in the workforce led to burnout over time, and these rates were higher for dissatisfied employees. This does not bode well for us Gen Z’ers whose careers haven’t even started. 

I think that part of this tendency to overcommit stems from the fact that Gen Z runs on multitasking. In the dining halls, hands switch between keyboards and forks as students eat lunch while writing a paper. People talk to their friends in between classes while listening to music through headphones (still haven’t been able to figure that out myself), and I’m pretty proud of the fact that I can text without looking down at my phone, so that I can have an in-person conversation at the same time. 

But no matter how much my thumbs get saved by autocorrect, in reality we’re horrible at multitasking. Not only are we less efficient when doing more than one thing at a time, but a study done by the University of Sussex found that multitasking using electronic devices was linked to impairments in empathy and emotional control regions in the brain. A large portion of Gen Z is just breaking out of their hometown bubbles, where instead of being set up with the kids of our parents’ friends, we now have the opportunity to make meaningful and thoughtful connections with people. But, we can’t do that if we all have deficits in our ability to express and perceive emotions. 

So, what all of this tells us is to do what you love, and don’t waste time on things that don’t make you excited to learn or work, just for the sake of a resume.

Sounds great in theory, but as college and graduate school admissions continue to get more and more competitive, a lot of us have to overcommit in order to put ourselves in the best possible position to do what we love in the future. I think for most students there is a bigger need to decrease stress associated with balancing a workload, extracurriculars, and a social life, rather than having to choose between them. And I believe that the best way to achieve this is to practice saying no and to set aside time for self care. 

In middle school, as an insecure tween, I naturally hated confrontation. This was a time when everyone wanted to look like everybody else, and there was nothing worse than drawing unwanted attention to yourself or doing something wrong. With this knowledge, my parents thought that this was the right stage of life to start having me order our dinners for delivery on the phone. 

The first time I ordered one large pizza for me and my sister. An hour later, tugging down the bottom of my turquoise SugarLip tank top, I went to the door to get it. But the delivery guy handed me two small pizzas. And as that was not what I had ordered, I took the pizzas, signed the bill, and went inside without saying anything.

After many more failed attempts and dinner tables scattered with food that we didn’t intend to order, I got better at asking for what I want and speaking up when I don’t get it.

Being able to speak up for yourself even in the smallest, most inconsequential situations is the key to handling overcommitment in college, because it will help you practice for when saying no is necessary for your sanity and health. Sometimes, you need to be able to tell the presidents of the club you’re in that you can’t volunteer on Friday because you’ve had the most stressful week and just NEED to watch the most recent episode of the bachelor and do a facemask (not sure if this excuse will actually fly so you may need to reword it a bit).

But if reality TV and skin care are not your style (I’d be confused why, but anyway), there are so many other small and easy ways to get some much needed “me” time in a whirlwind of classes, activities, and spending time with friends. Recent research on the effects of mindfulness has showed that practicing mindfulness actually alters brain structure by weakening the connections associated with stress response and strengthening the parts of the brain responsible for decision making and attention, counteracting the effects seen through electronic multitasking. Mindfulness experts (sounds like the best job) are claiming that even 10 minutes a day of mindfulness is enough to make real changes in mental health. They were referring more specifically to meditation, but if you’re new to the whole self care thing, I understand that meditation can feel a little weird and unproductive. 

So, make it your own! I believe that self care can mean a lot of different things to different people, and with a busy schedule that can be as simple as listening to music in between walks to class (without looking at your phone), reading a book for ten minutes before you go to sleep every night, or treating yourself to ice cream. 

Overall, I think there needs to be less stigma around taking some time for yourself, and it took me more than a few stressful weeks to understand how important it is. There’s so much unspoken pressure to do more, but no matter how many credit hours you’re taking or activities you’re involved with, we all reach our limits eventually.

Sometimes it feels like the only thing standing between me and a mental breakdown is a nail painting session. And then if it happens eventually, at least I get to take comfort in the fact that my nails look good.

Always yours,

Julia

Hi Julia,

Should I start a food Instagram account? I think it would help me eat healthier and I take a lot of pictures of my food anyway! I’m worried it’s going to make me go crazy and think about what I’m eating all the time, but I already see so many other food accounts on my feed. I just want to make sure it’s not going to be a bad thing. 

- ThePhoneEatsFirst62

Hello ThePhoneEatsFirst62,

I don’t have a food Instagram account myself, but I follow a bunch of them and have some friends who have their own. I’ll admit, I did go to a diner once for the sole reason that it had a very active social media account advertising huge, extravagant milkshakes. And I’m definitely not alone: 75% of avid diners in the U.S. said they’ve chosen a place to eat based only on pictures on social media in 2016. But, when me and my friends ordered, we ended up getting very regular milkshakes just 30 minutes further from where we would usually get them (the actual menu, unlike Instagram, did not show pictures of the food). And even after that traumatic experience, pictures of food still make up the majority of my social media feeds. 

Why is this trend so popular, and how is it affecting what or how we eat?

“Food is a monster of an opportunity trend,” says Alexa Tonner, co-founder of Collectively, a social media influencer marketing agency. “People want to get their followers excited, and what’s more exciting than something that’s so visual?” Besides just a visual component, there may be a hormonal one too. A study found higher levels of ghrelin (a signal for food intake) in people who had just looked at images of food, compared to those who had seen neutral pictures, supporting the fact that there’s nothing that will make me hit the like button faster than a slow-motion video of a warm chocolate chip cookie splitting open. 

But, there is some debate as to if those feelings of hunger from seeing pictures of food translate to wanting to eat that food in real life. One study found that viewing pictures of food and then consuming a similar one decreased enjoyment of eating. Subjects who viewed pictures of salty snacks and then ate salted peanuts tended to enjoy the food less than people who had looked at photos of desserts. So, even if the milkshakes had looked like they did on Instagram, would I have still enjoyed it less than if I hadn’t seen it online? Maybe not, if I had taken a picture of it myself. An experiment published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing discovered that people who were made to take a picture of red velvet cake reported it as tastier than those who did not take a picture of the same cake (this was not seen with healthy foods, but keep that in mind for later). 

Why would the act of taking a picture of our food make it taste better? Taking photos of any experience makes it more enjoyable, one study concluded, as long as the photography doesn’t interfere with the experience (as someone who takes videos at concerts and then never watches them after, I felt that). More specific to food, taking pictures of your food before you eat can be seen as a kind of a ritual, and people who completed brief rituals before eating enjoyed their food more than those who ate right away.

If taking pictures of our food makes us enjoy eating more, should we all have our own food accounts?

I think it’s probably okay to have one if you do it in a healthy and mindful way.  A lot of food accounts are following the “intuitive eating” trend, which encourages people to listen to their bodies and stop eating when they’re full. “I like this approach since it moves away from the ‘all or nothing’ mentality that so many diets promote,” says Amanda Baker Lemein, R.D., a registered dietitian. And there is evidence that these food accounts can influence us to eat healthier. The same Journal of Consumer Marketing study mentioned earlier had subjects either read an article about how Americans were eating less or about how they were eating more, and then gave them the opportunity to take a picture of healthy food before they ate it. The people who read the article about healthier Americans thought the healthy food was tastier than those who read the other article that implied that more Americans ate unhealthier food. 

So, seeing posts of artfully designed smoothie bowls and dessert alternatives that-look-like-the-real-thing may make us like those foods more than if we just came across them in a restaurant (I saw a post last week for chickpea blondies on Instagram and was really excited to make them until my family shot it down so fast). What’s fascinating about this study is that the desire to follow what other people were eating overrode the affinity for unhealthy foods we have after taking a picture of them (as we saw in the red velvet cake example). 

This is why following lots of Instagram food accounts can go wrong. Lauren Slayton, R.D., a dietitian and cofounder of Foodtrainers, starts to find an issue with food influencers “when someone alludes to or poses with a whole pizza or fries, giving the impression that they can eat volumes of crappy food and still look and feel great.” A lot of people who run food accounts post pictures of themselves as well, and I’ve always found myself wondering how these people can travel around New York eating dessert and pasta every day and seem not to gain any weight. We need to keep in mind that Instagram isn’t reality. Eric Mersmann, an ice cream Instagrammer in New York, said that at the ice cream events he goes to (what are those and how can I go?), about 75% of the ice cream gets thrown out “once it gets too melty for a good shot.” 

There also also accounts on the other side of the spectrum that might show foods that the account owners think are healthy, but might not actually be. Acaí bowls, for example, are all over Instagram, and although they’re healthy in theory, “these bowls are usually two to three servings, covered in toppings like granola and chocolate shavings, and have WAY too much sugar to be considered a balanced meal, says Gillean Barkyoumb, R.D., founder of Millennial Nutrition.

So, there’s definitely a lot to keep in mind if you’re planning on starting a food-focused Instagram account, or even if you just follow a bunch of them. The main takeaways I’ve found are these: 1) Don’t listen to the people who roast you for taking pictures of your food, because studies show you’re probably enjoying your food more than them. 2) People aren’t necessarily eating the things they post on Instagram, or they have a pretty crazy workout regimen to keep up with it all, so it’s probably not the best idea to try to emulate that lifestyle yourself. 3) Things that people tell you are healthy online might not actually be. 4) If you’re set on starting an account yourself, try to keep it real. If you’re trying to tell people to eat a certain thing, show them why it’s good for them. 

And don’t just post pictures of the salads you’re eating for lunch if you have pizza for dinner. It’ll help all of us to see the good and the bad (which categories you think pizza and salad fall into is your choice). 

Always yours,

Julia