Restaurant, Hotel Unions Ban Smartphones While Eating Food; Food Influencers Are Stunned

Food selfies are eating away profits of restaurants, literally. And this is not good.

Sharing pictures of food on Instagram is no longer a trend but has now turned into a routine. People spend more time clicking pictures, editing and uploading them to social media platforms than the actual act of eating. This means that they are spending more time on the tables, and this means less profits.

That’s the reason restaurants and hotel owners across India have initiated a ban against smartphones.

What made the hotel and restaurant owners take such a drastic step? Read on to know more!

Obnoxious Demands By Customers

Restaurants and hotel owners across India have noticed the increase in serving time and blame it on the customers’ time-consuming process of clicking pictures and uploading them before eating. Serving time and time spent on tables have increased dramatically across the globe, and this means less profits for the restaurants.

A study has also revealed that people are actually more interested in taking pictures of food than eating the dish.

While Instagram has been a great source of marketing for some owners, it has also dragged down the customer experience rates. On asking for feedback after a meal, it was calculated that people with their smartphones on the table enjoyed less than those who didn’t.

Food: Make it Beautiful Not Tasty

To what level do diners go to get their dish picture perfect and Instagram worthy?

In an interview, the owner of a restaurant said that sometimes, the ‘influencers’ on these social media platforms order healthy food, click pictures for Instagram’s sake and then go back to eating junk. Apparently, customers go to the extent of requesting the chefs to make the food look good and “don’t care about what you put in it.”

Chef from a leading Pune-based restaurant said, “Patrons are busy clicking and editing pics, and often throw away the food once they get the likes and comments. This is getting ridiculous.”

Another owner of a restaurant from Delhi said, “Last week, one so-called food influencer actually asked me to make the food look good, rather than yummy. I mean, are we a joke?”

This has led to chefs being focused on making the food presentable rather than how it tastes. Additionally, culinary schools are also planning to introduce a subject in their syllabi, which will be called, ‘Instagram Worthy Food Presentation,’ IWFP for short, although this is still in the pipeline and more news is not yet available.

Audience’s Reaction To The Smartphone Ban

Obviously, no one is happy about this decision by the lobby of restaurant and hotel owners. People are expressing their anger and disdain of this rule on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as well in the forms of memes and aggravated responses as well.

One prominent Instagram influencer reacted, and said, ” If phones are banned on tables, what is the point of going to a restaurant then?”

There are people who go to restaurants and select their order based on how it looks and how much response its pictures would garner on social media.

Looks like restaurants will surely lose some valuable customers due to this law implemented.

Image Credit

Disclaimer:

Happy April’s Fool Day!

This is our attempt at amusing you with some satire. 

Hope you liked it!