Enter a subreddit the place customers anonymously share their less-than-picture-perfect meals. It’s a shining oasis the place you are rewarded to your mediocrity. Pringles dipped in yogurt; a plate of “popcorn hen” that’s really simply popcorn and hen; a faculty lunch that appears prefer it’s made out of clay. The more serious-looking it’s, the extra upvotes it will get. The extra your meal betrays an unstable psychological state, the higher. Not solely is it enjoyable to see the artistic creations of these with totally different brains than you, it seems like de-programming. It’s the content material antidote to all of the optimized influencers. I begin to breathe a bit of simpler once I’m it, and I’m not alone. Right here, every thing feels prefer it’s going to be okay.
Authenticity might be arduous to search out on-line, the place every thing you see is optimized for an algorithm. We sift by mountains of polished content material the place “wholesome” individuals dwell camera-ready lives. In opposition to our wills, we find out about meal prep and dinner-party dips and why we must always supposedly keep away from Crimson Dye 40. It’s exhausting.
I might guess most of us are used to the sensation of not “residing up” to the influencers in our telephones. We all know that their lives are pretend or unattainable and that we shouldn’t be evaluating ourselves to them. However in some way it feels extra private when it’s about meals. It’s one thing we’ve got to do on daily basis, and consumes our ideas. The meals we eat is tied to our identities, our cultures, our preferences, and our our bodies, making it a particularly private expertise. To really feel judged in that enviornment can really feel like an advert hominem assault. I’m sorry I don’t have the right Tupperware for the right meal prep for the right low-glycemic, paleo, high-protein, unprocessed meals (no matter that really means)—most of us don’t.
by way of @torilanaee
That feeling of judgment all fades away on this meals subreddit. You might be your unbridled, messy self among the many posts of meals like pizza that has been microwaved for quarter-hour (spoiler alert, it seems to be extra like a black lace doily than meals). It is no coincidence that this content material exists on Reddit and never a platform like Instagram or TikTok, the place probably the most optimized meals influencer content material resides. Reddit places a better premium on anonymity than different platforms. It doesn’t revolve round a private profile or a stream of private profiles, however slightly a set of good pursuits. Your identification on Reddit is as a part of a bunch, not as a person persona. There may be security in anonymity and it’s an enormous a part of why customers really feel secure to share their doubtlessly embarrassing kitchen failures. Greater than that, although, there’s a sense of neighborhood. All of us got here there for a similar cause, and our successes and failures are communal. Whenever you put up your dinner of three boiled potatoes and a container of hummus, it’s not simply your drawback. It’s our drawback, and we’re completely happy to be there for it.
Positive, there’s a component of schadenfreude in a few of this content material, the place we breathe a sigh of reduction understanding life might all the time be worse. However to me, it’s extra about relatability than it’s about pity. Changing into an grownup means contending with how troublesome it’s to feed oneself. You’re employed all day simply to return dwelling to some wilted lettuce and expired milk. You’re exhausted and your pockets can’t stand one other DoorDash order. Within the pits of adulting despair, the one logical resolution is to eat three hard-boiled eggs, the remainder of that mozzarella that’s about to go unhealthy, and a handful of previous granola. Possibly you even choke down that previous lettuce for well being factors. In the event you haven’t had a dinner like this, then are you even an unbiased grownup?
It’s a breath of contemporary air that not solely makes you are feeling higher about your meals habits however reminds you that it’s okay to be human. It’s the right means off of the hamster wheel of chasing perfection that meals influencers consistently peddle. And, on the very least, it can function inspiration to your subsequent wrestle meal.
