Social Media's Impact on Food Consumption Habits - Essay Sample

Introduction

The power of social media has had an impact not only on fashion trends but also on food consumption habits. The habits may either be positive or negative, depending on the food that is advertised. Social media platforms for advertisements include Instagram, Facebook, and personal or company websites. Either way, internet users who come across such advertisements will either fall for it or reject it based on the power the ad carries or the consumer's tastes, preferences, and beliefs. The influence of food advertisements on social media and other forms of media like television or radio is dependent on various factors. The age of consumers, gender, social class, income level, health benefits, and beliefs, as well as consumer tastes and preferences. However, these are the factors when one is segmenting the market share to achieve higher sales. During social media advertising, the consumers are varied, and it is not easy to choose a market segment. Therefore, marketers decided on the quality of the advert and modified it to attract consumers. For instance, children up to fifteen years will easily be tempted to advertisements on sugary foods like candies and cakes. Contrarily, older people will fall for ads that advocate for healthier lifestyles since they are aware of their vulnerability to chronic illnesses like high blood pressure and diabetes. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of social media advertisements on food consumption since ad attractiveness arouses the consumers' intentions to purchase a product.

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The Influence of Online Friends on Eating Habits

A study was performed by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on the children under the Eating Disorder Treatment program to derive the factors affecting the massive consumption of junk foods. Researchers carried out this study on the basis that social media is the most used interaction platform for many people irrespective of age. The study was performed by sampling out 369 university students (Radcliff, 1). An interview was conducted on the student's consumption habits of vegetables, fruits, snacks with high energy density, and beverages sweetened with sugar. Fundamentally, the study also covered the student's frequency of social media interaction and their perception of their online friend's eating habits. From the survey, it came out that social norms affect people's eating habits in two ways. First, people tend to consume the type of foods that a more significant number of their online friends consume. For instance, if members in a Facebook group confess to being eating a vegan diet, other users will follow suit. In some cases, the vegan majority may share the health benefits of a vegan diet while in others, they don't. Therefore, if the health benefits are not attached, users may fall for it just to appear cool and testify for it.

The researchers also found that online users follow the habits of their friends due to their personal beliefs. If someone thinks that eating sugary foods is writing and realizes that their online friends feel that way, then they will stick to a sugarless diet (Radcliff, 1). Whenever behavior is determined by what most people do, it comes to the attention of health researchers to nudge individuals towards healthy living. If social media can be used by alcohol companies to advertise their drinks, then the advertisement can be formulated to achieve health benefits. For instance, publications such as 'don't drink and drive' comes with alcohol adverts. Another alcohol advertisement is 'excessive alcohol consumption is harmful to your health, not for sale for persons under the age of eighteen years.' In such an advert, a company will still achieve its sales from eligible persons. It may reach a desirable consumption of alcohol that does not harm consumers similarly if a candy company formulates its advertisements as 'Sweet Candies for your Good Mood. Too many Candies are Harmful to your Dental Health', it will have covered up for the health risks associated with candies.

Additionally, social media can be used independently to advertise healthy diets. If bloggers could write about the health risks associated with fatty and sugary diets, it would be easier to sensitize internet users on the reasons for living a healthy life. Some of the health risks associated with sugary and fatty foods include diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, arthritis, and cancer. If researchers and health bloggers can maximize on these media platforms, it will save lives and the nation at large (Rambe & Retumetse, 16). Health advocates can also publish about the need for a fruity and vegan diet in improving the health of people across various countries. Therefore, social media can be used as a way of nudging internet users on the preferred foods for healthy living. Since hospitals report hires diet-related issues, the ministry of health can cut costs through awareness creation on a healthy diet across all media platforms. A lot of money is spent by governments providing health benefits for individuals even though the conditions are preventable.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only 12.2 percent eat the fruit serving diet recommended by public health researchers. Also, the study reported that only 9.3 percent of Americans eat a diet rich in vegetables (Rambe & Retumetse 34). Further, CDC reports indicated that three percent of American adults consume fast foods every day. Sweetened beverage consumption among adult Americans recorded 49 percent during the research. Therefore, social media can be used as a display for beautiful vegan images that attract the eyes of users hence influencing their consumption. The images may be accompanied by the social norms they advocate for; therefore, they affect viewers.

Nonetheless, the curators of healthy or unhealthy food advertisements need to consider the negative impacts of the message relayed. For instance, curators may paint healthy food like fruits and vegetables, while sugary food as harmful. Most teenagers who are the more significant users of social media will come across these messages. The psychological effect of the news will paint the consumers of cakes and candies as those with bad habits, thus shame them for it. Contrarily, vegans will be praised for their healthy diets. When this happens, most teenagers will feel pressured to follow the vegan diet unwillingly, and this will not bring the intended health benefit to them (Patel, 34). Also, the pressure may cause eating disorders such as skipping meals, over-exercising to cut weight and keep fit, and binge eating. The worry about excess weight eats up most teenagers who may fall into stress, anxiety, or depression due to body shaming. Therefore, curators must keep in mind such risks when advertising health-related food ads.

The Impact of Food Images on the Network of Desire

Networks of desire refer to the complex systems of technology, consumers, virtual objects, energized passion, and physical objects that integrate to form a consumption interest in the viewer's mind. In this system, the triggering factor is attention, which influences the desire to purchase and consuming a product whose image you viewed online. The first time consumption may become a habit, a brand choice, and eventually, someone's lifestyle (Ko. There are three essential ways in which technology triggers consumption desire. First, the disciplining aspect implies that technology is at the center of every faculty, including economic, social, cultural, and institutional features (Kozinets et al., 668). As a result, disciplining affects the course and transmission of raw energy into building desire. The second factor is abstracting, which is a force that dissociates forces within the body to match the effects within the network. Third, extreme energy allows technology users to develop attention that promotes high desire levels.

Three Forms of Consumer Participation in Network Desire

Private Network Participation

Whenever family members, lovers, or Facebook friends share intimate food images or recipes amidst each other in a comfortable setting, this is referred to as private network participation. Such photos are shared through Snapchat, Facebook, Whatsapp, or short messaging services (Kozinets et al., 669). The images may or may not be shared with commentaries explaining the attached benefits. Nonetheless, such intimate conversations provide avenues for inquiries and immediate responses about the food for either party. Therefore, the decision that either party will make on the shared food represents the aspect of communication and sharing of interests. Private Network Participation has as much effect as other forms of media.

Public Network Participation

In this type of network desire, various online users who include newcomers, longtime users, and micro-celebrities share food images they think deserve attention as either healthy or unhealthy for consumption. Such photos are posted on platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter (Kozinets et al., 669). Since most of these platform users are unknown to you, the primary reason for sharing is to reach a wide range of online users. An individual must be familiar with certain tags that promote their products. Twitter and Instagram tags defer with the Pinterest board though they are used for similar uses. There are subcategories for the foods on these platforms that could make your post stand out on such media platforms. Such include food economies, gourmet, regional, healthcare, ethnic, or dietary depending on the target consumer search patterns. The personal experience and culture of a person related to media in creating desire or sharing of food images. For instance, Instagram bloggers mostly share regular meals, whereas food in a cultural experience appears in a group or company album.

Professional Network Participation

You tubers and website bloggers on Word press fall under the professional type of network participants. They professionally research and post information depending on tangible evidence provided from other studies or interviews they conducted. YouTube channel owners also create videos of recipes of various food types and share them publicly (Kozinets et al., 669). The professional aspect of the YouTube channel implies they do not just do it to impress viewers but also for financial gain. Either way, YouTube has been reported to be a significant source of food advertisements other than Instagram. Professional participants may also be citizen journalists and institutional entrepreneurs who seek to influence the consumer's regime of taste.

Common Food Advertisement Endorsers

Common food endorsers are celebrities and food experts. Most food companies chose a star to advertise their products, either food or any category, due to the impact that stars have on crowds. Influencing the group to do something is more comfortable when a more significant percentage of the population is your fans. Also, the study discovered that most internet users would settle for a product being promoted by a celebrity rather than an expert. The implication is that fans and internet users are governed by the psychological effect of pleasure and arousal (Kusumasondjaja et al., 675). People find comfort in viewing events and photos of celebrities they love. Therefore, having a star advertise a healthy diet or a category of people will quickly move their fans. Also, fans are aroused when they see a star they identify with doing something positive. If the public health ministry hopes to use social media to impact citizen's consumption habits, they should opt for a celebrity as the brand ambassador. Applying arousal and pleasure is the most significant way to determine the effect of Instagram advertisements o...