Nobody ever called me a foodie for making a bag of frozen tater tots and a box of pierogies before. I feel so…special, all of a sudden! 
(Seriously, tater tots on the BBQ grill are the bomb.)
I have never cared about what other people have eaten for lunch.
The only thing here vaguely interesting was the pretzel.
I like food. A lot. And get into conversations about food with other people, but I still don’t need to see daily photos of what people I know ate yesterday.
I post pictures of stuff that I bake with my daughter. Started when she was three and still do it now that she is six. Baking is something I loved doing, my wife couldn’t care less, so I am glad to share with my daughter.
I can’t imagine taking pictures of food in a restaurant, unless it was something really unusual.
Why the hell would you take and share photos of people you don’t even know throwing a ball around? Nevermind. I don’t get sports fans. At all.
Why the hell would you take and share photos of cars, they’re just pieces of metal. Nevermind. I don’t get car fans. At all.
Why the hell would you take and share photos of places you’ve been? Nevermind. I don’t get travellers. At all.
Why the hell would you take and share photos of plants or animals or the sky? Nevermind. I don’t get nature fans. At all.
It’s got nothing inherently to do with being a “Foodie”. People take pictures of food for the same myriad of reasons people take pictures of anything they’re interested in. Maybe they’ve baked a cake for the very first time after a lifetime of being convinced they’re a non-baker, and they want to share that with friends and family. Maybe they’re at a really high-end restaurant that they’ve always dreamed of going to, and the food is just as wonderful as it seemed in the TV shows or food critic pages. As mentioned upthread, sometimes there’s something amusing about the food (Look at this, they really eat parmesan-flavoured kitkats in Japan?!), or something disappointing (This used to be my favourite restaurant because they did the best chicken-fried steak ever. Look at how horrible and watery this gravy is). Maybe they have a dream of becoming a food critic and take pictures of meals for their blog to build up a portfolio.
Why share pictures of food? Why share pictures of anything that happens to anyone if you’re going to take that line of thinking?
You don’t eat sports teams, cars, foreign lands, or nature (most of the time). I think the point is that food is meant to be smelled and eaten. The appearance of the food is really of secondary concern, whereas there are plenty of people for whom are aesthetically appealing. Many people also travel to see things, which a picture portrays reasonably well.
Now, this is not to say that it doesn’t matter what food looks like, obviously presentation is a thing, but most food pictures I’ve seen on facebook and the like deserve a big “so what?” It’s not fine art, it’s the sushi you got at some Japanese restaurant. In my experience, the cases you covered above (weird stuff, fine dining, etc.) aren’t the usual facebook food photo, they’re the exception.
This is a strange response to the post you quoted. Sports teams aren’t fine art, nor is their primary purpose to be looked at and admired visually as an object. Neither are cars, foreign lands, etc. Your “so what?” response to food pictures is shared by other people who are looking at sports pictures, animal pictures, kid pictures, car pictures, etc. Everyone has something they find boring or pointless.
For what it’s worth, I find pictures that people have taken at sporting events to be pretty pointless, too.
I guess I just find a difference between pictures of a landscape, person, or car to be different from a picture of food. I have yet to find a food picture posted by a friend to be interesting, even though I would consider myself a bit of a foodie. Maybe the issue is that food pictures appeal to a much more limited audience than some of those other things mentioned. Are there people out there who like viewing those pictures?
I like them sometimes, if the person has written something interesting and the photo is illustrating that, or it’s a funny photo or otherwise unusual.
Sometimes they are just boring pictures of someone’s lunch, though. It depends. (I feel much the same way about photos of people’s pets and children, FTR.)
Yes. I have a friend whose cupcake photos make me want to gnaw them out of the paper / screen. Yum. There is definitely visual appeal to food – it can make something really appetizing, or be a total turn off. This is why restaurants and the Food Network pay so much attention to presentation.
Also, food is fun, and people commonly share photos of the fun they’re having.
This is very popular in Korea - if I go out with my Korean girl friends they will usually take photos of our food, providing we are eating somewhere nice. I often get scolded for trying to eat something before a photo has been taken.
I have taken photos of food before, but only on special occasions - usually when we’re traveling. Honestly it usually occurs to me after I’ve already gobbled everything down. “Oh, yeah, I meant to take a photo of that.”
I don’t do it all the time. I think I’ve posted 5 or 6 things on FB, that I was proud of making, or just as part of an update. (like the photo of the French Press timing down to 4 minutes with the kettle on one side, manual burr grinder on the other and mug in front. Caption - relaxing on a Sunday afternoon. I don’t get the ire.
I did once when I made poutine.
I post pictures of food I’ve cooked. I don’t have a lot going on in my life right now. Meal prep is the closest thing I have to a creative outlet.
Not food per se. But I’ve sent my wife pictures of the beer I’m having more than once.
Presentation. It’s all about presentation.
I don’t get people that don’t get pictures of food.
One female lover of food porn - checking in!
My partner usually restricts her photos to ones of coffee and cake at various coffee shops!
She blogs about them here.
This drives me nuts- mainly. yes we have friends who go to nice restaurants and sometimes they will post pictures on FB about some fancy food presentation.
On the other hand we have friends who post pictures of greasy looking shit just to show they got a large meal for $2. Accompanied of course by “Nom nom nom”.
I did once post a picture of a can of beer on FB with “Lunch- nom nom nom”.
I give up: why would one do this? There are people actually interested in what the meal you’re about to eat looks like? How bizarre.
hehe. I have posted exceptionally pretty draft beers, albeit with the bartender’s cleavage as background.