This is the second episode of Travelgrams, a four-part series that dives deep into the unexpected (and totally made-up) origin stories of social media photo trends. Check out the first episode on the waterfall pic here, the third episode on the “looking away” pic here, and the last episode on the “lounging legs” pic here.
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The Food Pic: A (Super True and Accurate) Social Media History
Why do we post photos of our food? It all goes back to one man and his mom.
The food pic: You’ve seen it on your feeds. You’ve hate-liked it. You’ve probably even paused a meal to take it yourself. But have you ever asked yourself, Why am I doing this? For the first person to take the food pic, the answer was obvious: prove to mom that I’m eating.
hate-like /hāt-līk/ (n.): the act of “liking” someone’s photo on social media even though it fills you with intense jealousy
The classic food photo traces back to Sammy, a musically inclined, wide-eyed teen on his first big solo trip to New York City, and his worried mom. And just like that, the travel game changed forever. Hate-likers were inspired to book their own trips and post their own food pics. A dad was left speechless at his son’s sudden fame, and the rest is history.
So the next time you see a friend’s photo of their beautiful brunch spread or ice cold craft beer, remember this before you hate-like it — there’s more to a travel pic than meets the eye. Watch the video above for the whole story.
Ready to snap your own food pic? Book your next trip on Hotels.com. Be there. Do that. Get rewarded.