Lifestyle

Generation whY!? Stop Taking Pictures Of Your Food!

Here at Elite Daily, we are introducing a new article feature, Generation whY!?. We plan to highlight some of the many random and at many times illogical trends and activities that the brilliant members of our generation partake in.

Our first article focused on women sending naked pictures. So to continue on the dumbass photo trend, this week we’ll focus on our generation’s insistence on posting pictures of everything we eat.

It’s a Sunday night. You’re sitting down at the dinner table of your local restaurant, about to be served. The waiter circles around your table, placing each dish down one by one. You reach out to grab your favorite dish, before your sister yells at you to stop.

She then proceeds to hold out her phone and take a picture of each dish. Rather than eating your food while it’s still hot, you’re forced to sit back and wait until she gets the perfect angle of each entree, smiling as if she is on the cusp of greatness, doing some sort of worldly service. This is a daily epidemic happening all over the country, and it needs to stop. Let the children eat!

There used to be a time at the dinner table where a family could not proceed to eat until grace was said. Now, posting pictures to Instagram has become the standard pre-meal ritual. Rather than choosing between different prayers, we choose between different filters, making Lo-fi, Sierra and Hudson amongst others, our generation’s holy words.

Why do people of Generation-Y find it necessary to constantly post pictures of their food? Have we become that food obsessed of a culture? I acknowledge that obesity has become an epidemic in our country, but do we really love our food so much that we need to digitally share it with everyone we know? More importantly, who gives a shit!? Speaking of shit…

For every person that posts a picture of their food before they eat it, I think they should also post a picture of the effects after they eat it. Yes, I would be more intrigued and at least entertained by pictures of people’s bowel movements opposed to pictures of their dinners.

And then they can even use their shitty filters on their shitty pictures! I’ll admit, there may be an occasion where something you eat is picture-worthy. If you are about to consume something intriguing like a cake in the shape of a giant penis, or a plate with a giant pigs head on it, then yes it’s appropriate to snap a picture to share.

But when you are eating the same pasta fagioli as every other Joe Schmo in a 10-block radius, you can leave the camera in your pocket. I have more pictures of macaroni and cheese on my newsfeed than people!

I can see it now, future Bar Mitzvah montages and family slide shows, consisting no longer of pictures of the family, but of every meal they have ever eaten. I can’t imagine how much anorexic and bulimic people must hate Instagram. Seeing so many pictures of food makes me want to throw up too.

And it’s not just the picture taking that’s annoying, it’s the subsequent checking of the phone every five minutes for instant gratification that bugs me too. “Does everyone approve of my meal!?? I hope a lot of people like it!” I think some girls only “like” other girl’s food pics when it’s a picture of a heavy dish and they know that their “friend” is about to consume all the calories. “Yes, she’s gunna get fat! Eat up ya giant cow!! I want to be the skinniest of all!!”

So if you are reading this article now, and you are one of these photo-taking perpetrators, or know someone close who is, I hope you have been inspired to right the wrong and get back to taking pictures of people rather than food.

We shouldn’t have to wait until our food gets cold just because of your need for attention and acceptance. And if not, I look forward to seeing your shit pics soon!

Tyler Gildin | Elite.