Argumentation is no longer enough for something to reverberate –to go viral, to hit, whatever the slang of the hour may be– on social networks. You have to outrage the audience.
This goes for food-related posts as well. Culinary atrocity rages in the parallel reality of networks.
There’s a lot of talk about how Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and the like corrupt the social fabric at large. I haven’t seen any experts analyze the effect of these platforms on food culture yet, so I’ll give my input.
The lack of awareness of social networks extrapolates to the real world and spoils gastronomy.
In search of organic disclosure, chefs and entrepreneurs in the sector invest in “instagrammable”. They are less concerned with the quality of the food than with pyrotechnics to appear in photos and videos of regulars.
Not so long ago, I was taken to a restaurant whose specialty is Instagrammable lasagna. The waiter brings the dough wrapped in a plastic tube and waits for the customer to get the cell phone camera ready. Then he lifts the tube: a dollop of white sauce floods the lasagna, phenomenal goroba captured on video.
If the problem was just the restaurant menu, frankly, so be it. But I suspect that the social media disease has infected the eating habits of a portion of the population – including me, who produces content for these networks.
Have you noticed the profusion of oversized, greasy food festivals that have popped up in recent years?
People go to these events to film, photograph and post acarajé weighing one kilo, pork rinds half a meter in diameter and the ox on a roller. But they end up eating tons of these things and encouraging others to do the same.
The lack of awareness takes on another magnitude when examining some videos produced for TikTok and Instagram reels. There, to stand out, you need to be disgusting, nauseous, scrotum and idiot.
A woman, presumably american, spreads big Macs in a huge pan. It layers with fries, maple syrup, industrial tomato sauce, a bag of shredded cheddar, bacon, Canadian sirloin, more syrup, McChickens, more sauce, and sliced cheddar. Take the monster to the oven and serve the garbage lasagna to the unfortunate person who filmed it.
another degenerate pours molten glass over a steak. You get literally charred meat.
There’s a crazy person draining macaroni in the toilet, an asshole stuffing a turkey with a block of cheese, a so-and-so preparing a six arroba dinner in the kitchen sink.
Of all the disgusting videos, the one that disturbs me the most shows a woman, with a British accent, teaching how to wash a raw chicken breast. The owner throws the painful thing into the sink, turns on the faucet, pours in the green detergent, scrubs the animal all over and rinses. Just needed to pass bombril.
It doesn’t have piggy layers, it doesn’t have flamethrowers. Seems to be serious. Just one person, his ignorance, a chicken and a Lemon Limpol spreading disinformation and attacking public health.
That’s where the danger lies.
I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years, and my work has been featured on many different news websites. I am also an author, and my work has been published in several books. I specialize in opinion writing, and I often write about current events and controversial topics. I am a very well-rounded writer, and I have a lot of experience in different areas of journalism. I am a very hard worker, and I am always willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done.
