Virtualizing our mouths: The sensorium and instagram imagery

Abstract

The article examines the primacy of vision and the work of the sensorium: the permanently under-construction seat of the senses, that absorbs and interprets information endlessly to make associations that influence food and eating. It discusses how the internet’s social media photo sharing platform Instagram plays a pivotal role in food choices as part of our taste apparatus. The article’s focus, situ-ated in middle to high-income countries, concludes that Instagram – as a particularly visual example of social media’s attention economy is potentially part of the transformation to more sustainable and ecological eating.