Food / Cafe / Design / Visit / Shops / Travel
Taipei Eater
Featured Article / Taipei
採訪文章 / 台北
As the internet expansion progresses, our eating habits are slowly changing— by the way we utilize our advanced phone cameras and devices, and by the way we interact with one another through social media platforms.
With that said, we met up with our friend Charlene, the creator and mind behind the Instagram account @Taipeieater, to hear about her thoughts on “How Our Social Media is Changing the Way We Eat”.
由於網路蓬勃發展，藉由先進的手機相機和設備、透過社群媒體和他人互動等方式，無形中漸漸影響了我們的飲食習慣。
我們採訪了一位朋友Charlene，是Instagram帳號@Taipeieater本人，讓我們來聽聽看她對於”社群媒體如何改變我們飲食方式＂的想法。
Is Social Media Really Changing the Way We Eat?
It's almost impossible to imagine that ordinary people could take on the habit of taking food photos just a little over a decade ago.
Living in Taipei, it's common to see people walking around with their smartphones, whether it's navigating for directions, shopping, texting, or even looking up on the next restaurant they plan to visit; in addition, restaurants are spending more time in food preparation so that the dishes are picture perfect when served.
社群媒體真的改變了我們飲食方式嗎?
幾乎無法想像十年前的人會有拍美食照的習慣。
生活在台北，走在街上人人拿著一隻智慧型手機是很普遍的事情，無論是用來導航、購物、聊天或查詢計畫想去的餐廳等；還有現在大家普遍做的事情就是拍出完美的餐點照片。
There are plenty of factors that could vary the amount of time restaurants spent on food preparation— the equipment the restaurant is using, quality of the ingredients, the Instagram-worthiness of a dish, and effectiveness in mastering their standard operation procedure (so-called S.O.P).
Restaurants now spend more time on dish preparation because the food industry is so competitive. It's hard for new restaurants to survive without brainstorming new ideas that could produce the next “hype” which everyone wants to go for.
And that's where the food blogging scene comes into play.
有很多因素可能會影響到餐點準備時間，餐廳使用的設備、食材的品質、Instagram上看起來有賣相的餐點，以及有效地掌握標準程序（俗稱S.O.P）。
現在餐飲業競爭大，許多餐廳花較多時間精心製作餐點，為了能夠建立好的評價、吸引更多顧客，對於新開幕的餐廳來說，若不腦力激盪、想出能夠吸引人潮的創新點子，在這樣的競爭環境下生存是很困難的。
這也是為什麼會有很多美食部落格的出現。
Nowadays, people are spending more time online "Food Shopping", looking for restaurants that showcase "good-looking" dishes. The amount of time between dishes being delivered and food consumption has also increased.
I, for example, often hear my non-blogger friends joke around saying, "Hey Char, when was the last time you had a warm meal?" or "How much time do you guys spend on taking food photos?"
I remember back in the day, taking photos of food would only take up 5-10 seconds, but the perfectionist inside of me would slowly creep in, and sometimes it would take up to 10 minutes for me just to get the right angle or the perfect lighting.
現今大家花較多的時間在上網尋找美食，找那些餐點看起來吸引人的餐廳，而且比起享用美食，大多數人反而花較多時間在拍照上。
以我為例，我身邊不是部落客的朋友們常開玩笑的問”嘿！Char，你上一次吃到熱騰騰的食物是什麼時候？”或是”你們花多少時間在拍照上啊？”
想想以前拍個美食照只要5-10秒鐘就可以解決了，但我內心完美主義的那一面會不自覺的出現，有時候只是喬角度或找對的光線就可以花掉我10分鐘的時間了。
It's really crucial to get the desired photo in the food bloggers' world. In some extreme cases, I've seen people taking as many photos as possible (sometimes taking up to an hour or two), so that they can eat peacefully after without worrying about not getting that perfect "one". Bloggers and food channels would also look for dishes that are out of the ordinary—dishes that are colorful, fun, blown up in size, or cute so that they can get as many “likes” as possible on social media.
Occasionally those fun food items can be too much for us to handle— runny yokes, avocado toasts, unicorn grilled cheese, the world's largest pizza, fitting 40 tacos in one plate, over the top desserts, and the most popular of all, mukbang (Online streaming channels to watch people eat).
It's no longer just the taste that matters, the authenticity of the dining experience— including the lighting, interior/ exterior aesthetics, and the plating, are now important determinants of the future success of restaurants.
So what are the incentives for food photos/ videos?
According to Kim Smith’s finding on Instagram statistics, “the app usage has doubled in the last couple years, and on an average day, 80 million photos are shared.” (Brandwatch— 41 Incredible Instagram Statistics).
I believe those photos and videos in our smartphones have really become our memory enhancer, to remember moments that otherwise would be lost without.
對美食部落客來說，要拍出讓人看了就很想去那家餐廳朝聖的照片其實是很困難的，我曾看過有人盡可能地能拍多少照片就拍多少（有時甚至拍了一或二個小時），好似這樣就可以放心的開動，不用擔心沒有拍到滿意的”那一張”照片。部落客和美食平台有別於以往的傳統食物－較追求色彩繽紛鮮豔的、可愛有趣的、份量大的美食，這樣一來在社交平台上可以得到的讚數也就越多。
但這些引起熱潮的食物對我們來說卻有些太超過了－流蛋黃汁的水波蛋、酪梨土司、彩虹脆烤起司三明治、世上最大的pizza、一盤有40個塔可餅，也引起了人們在mukbang（線上的影音平台），觀看他人怎麼大塊朵頤這些食物，這樣的趨勢似乎是有些過頭了。
不再只是品嚐味道，還有用餐的真實體驗－包括採光、室外/室內設計和擺盤等，都是現在餐廳是否能夠成功的重要因素。
那是什麼動機讓人們拍出食物的照片和影片呢?
根據Kim Smith對於Instagram統計數據的發現，”過去幾年裡，App的使用量成長了一倍，平均一天有8000萬張照片被分享。” (Brandwatch— 41 Incredible Instagram Statistics)
我相信在手機裡的那些照片和影片已經成為我們增強記憶的小幫手了，幫助我們記住那些時刻，否則會失去似的。
Before social media became a thing, people used to discover new restaurants through word of mouth, TV advertisements, or simply passing by them. But now, people are actively looking through social media, hashtags, yelp, google reviews to decide whether a restaurant is worth going.
People are more willing to travel far for that one appealing food photo, and just let me note here: the hashtag #food has already been used in 275,757,806 posts and is constantly growing, can you believe it?
Of course, there are always two sides to everything. Sometimes the photos can also paint a false image to the blogger's lifestyle, because a food post that can be viewed within seconds may take hours to capture, and most of the time they are definitely not as glamorous as they have been presented.
At the end of the day, my food photos really helped me connect with so many wonderful people. To me, meeting people that are just as passionate about food as I am are extremely exciting and fun. Perhaps social media isn’t as bad as we may think?
在社群媒體出現之前，人們通常藉由口耳相傳、電視廣告或只是單純經過而發現新的餐廳，但現在人們活躍地透過社群媒體、標記、yelp、Google評論來決定這間餐廳是否值得光顧。
人們更願意為了那張吸引人的食物照片而遠行，請讓我在這裡註記：標記食物的貼文已經多達兩億七千五百七十五萬又七千八百零六篇了！而且持續的在增加，你相信嗎？
當然，事情總是一體兩面的，有時候照片也可以為部落客製造一些假像，因為大家過目幾秒鐘的食物貼文，那照片也許是拍了好幾個小時才拍出來的，而且大多時候食物本身並沒有照片展示的那麼吸引人。
在一天結束的時候，我的食物照片確實幫助我與許多很棒的人聯繫在一起，對我來說，認識和我一樣熱愛食物的人是非常興奮和有趣的， 所以也許社群媒體並不像我們想像的那麼糟糕？
With love,
Char @Taipeieater
Follow Taipei Eater at her instagram account @taipeieater
想了解更多，請到Taipei Eater的IG@taipeieater看看吧！
Also check Sugar Pea restaurant in Daan where we had the photo shooting for this article set up!
也到我們此次採訪用餐的餐廳Sugar Pea
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All the pictures and words in this article belongs to Taipei Eater and River and have copyright.
If you would like to use it please contact us first, We like to share.
本文中的所有圖片和文字版權由Taipei Eate和River所有。
我們樂於分享，但若您想截取使用，請先聯繫我們。
3 September 2018
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