1 Facebook and a large coke please.
BA1002 Kendall Munro Monday 3pm
BA1002 Kendall Munro Monday 3pm
As mentioned
in last week’s McNeil (2011) reading “hundreds and thousands of people... are
writing and publishing serial chronicles of daily life” (p.313), as part of
this daily timeline of activities, Facebook has introduced the ‘Check-in’ option.
The most popular ‘check-in’ is at meal times (usually accompanied by a photo of
the dish) when people are eating out or even enjoying their food from the comfort
of their home. Sharing our interests in food and preference in restaurant through
virtual networks encourages connections with people whom have similar taste
that we may not normally associate with.
Atkins and
Bowler (2001) state that “the distinction between social groups, especially
classes, in their taste for food and other commodities may become a badge of
their identity” (p.272), Kuttainen (2013) also portrayed food as a
representation of people’s identities (i.e. culture and ethnic background) in
this week’s lecture. If I were to dine at a restaurant such as Giardini’s
Italian Pizza and Pasta or order Chinese take-out, I would be eating food from
a different cultural background. The ‘Check-in’ option on Facebook allows me to
publicise this and most likely enable me to connect with one of my Facebook friends
who is from that cultural background. I am experiencing a part of their
identity by enjoying food from their culture.
Through
Facebook people have also developed food networks where they share recipes and
successful creations with each other, search for ideas, and look for tips.
Hundreds of Facebook pages have been created to accommodate for peoples common
appreciation of food, the following link is to a popular Facebook page based on
food, feel free to follow the link to steal and share some of your own ideas:
Reference
List:
Atkins, P., & Bowler, I.
(2001). Food in Society: Economy, Culture, Geography. London, England: Arnold.
a member of the Hodder Headline Group
Kuttainen, V.
(2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narrratives and The Making Of Place,
Lecture 7: Food Networks. [Lecture] Retrieved from: http://learnjcu.edu.au
McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to
screen. In Language and New Media. (C.Rowe & E.L Wyss, Ed.).
Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press Inc.
Image
Credit:
http://internal3m.com/CMS/Wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/facebook-food-360.jpg
Hi Kendall,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post this week was very interesting and, as I am also studying Facebook as my virtual network, I read your post in comparison to my own. We addressed quite similar aspects of the representation of food on Facebook, such as images, sharing recipes, and making group pages for food etc. Although I didn’t address check-ins in my blog, I agree that the most common/popular time food images and statuses are shared, is during, or just after certain meal times. I found it interesting that you said that “sharing our interests in food and preference in restaurant through virtual networks encourages connections with people whom have similar taste that we may not normally associate with.” Although it may connect you to other people, it can also distance people from a restaurant if you were to give a bad review, or even by recommending a restaurant, it can allow you to connect with other people through the restaurant itself. As Tuan (1991) states, “language is a force that all of us use everyday, to build, sustain and destroy.” People are able to influence your ideas on food, rather than the food itself (if someone said that a certain dish wasn’t very tasty, you are less likely to consume that dish, even if it appears to look good).
Keep up the good work!
Reference:
Tuan, Y. (1991). Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Taylor& Francis, LTD. Retrieved from: http://learnjcu.edu.au