Social media can give insights into many aspects of modern life, and a recent study looked at images on Instagram in search of insights into nutrition among young adults.
Researchers Gitte Kloek, Stefanie Salmon, Sanne de Vries studies food images on Instagram to help in understanding young adult health behaviors.
To select participants, their study used images with the hashtag (#) [age]year. The participants were at the ages of 18 to 24. If the image referred to the birthday of the user, the account was put into the study.
A total of 350 accounts were used throughout this study and 50 per age group. The first image depicting food items posted at least two days prior to the tagged image was used in the analysis. A qualitative content analytic approach was used to analyze this study. Images were categorized on what kind of food items they were and the particular way they were displayed.
Of the 350 accounts studied, food images were found in 78 percent, with 83 percent of women and 63 percent of men sharing food images throughout their profiles. The most identified food groups were cookies, pastries, fruits/vegetables, soda, meat, coffee and tea, and fast food.
The authors note that while it’s unclear whether these images represent actual behavior, “it is interesting to know what food-related messages young adults share with one another.”
For full text: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S149940461730461X
Gitte Kloek, Stefanie Salmon, Sanne de Vries, Explorative Research of Food Presentation on Instagram Among Young Adults, Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Vol. 49, Issue 7, Supplement 1,2017, Page S66, ISSN 1499-4046,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2017.05.195.
