Posted 2:42 p.m. Friday, April 18, 2025
"Online Platforms: How They Affect Baking Habits and Attitudes of Young Adults"--Undergraduate Research Proposal
Abstract
Social media provides information, new ideas, and trends in almost anything we can think of, but one area social media has a profound impact on is the culinary world. Now digital recipes of everything imaginable are accessible at our fingertips. It is changing people's eating habits, what they buy and cook, and how often one may cook. A similar situation is happening with baking. As these social media platforms rise, there is more exposure to baking communities and influencers, however, there is not as much research done about baking as there is cooking. The purpose of this research is to better understand the relationship between social media and how or if it affects baking within young adults. I will perform this research by doing an observational study of an online baking community and send a survey to a sample of college students. I expect to discover how online platforms are affecting the usage, attitudes, and perceptions of baking in adolescents ages eighteen to twenty-six.
Background and Literature Review
What was life like before the internet? For many people, especially in younger generations such as Generation Z and Generation Alpha, we can't remember growing up without it. Especially since the Covid-19 Pandemic, the usage of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and especially TikTok have significantly increased. It is expected that the number of users on social media will exceed “4.5 billion in 2022, which accounts for about 55% of the global population.” (Lisita Rini, 2024). Like it or not, our world is constantly changing, and the rising use of technology and social media is changing the way we do everything. Many of these platforms and influencers can have an impact on the way we communicate, the way we spend our free time, our thoughts/ beliefs on a certain subject, and can even change our daily routines and habits.
One area where social media platforms and influencers impact is how it affects the cooking practices and eating habits of individuals. Within this concept there has been lots of research conducted on how social media and influencers are affecting consumer behavior revolving food in general. According to Karina Sokolova, a big part of these social media platforms are influencers who “promote certain lifestyles and behaviors.” As for this connection to cooking and food, social media has a direct effect on what consumers are purchasing and may impact consumers' eating and cooking habits. (Sokolova, K., Vessel, 2024). Listia Rini, who is an expert in the field of Agricultual Economics, also talks about how the advancement of social media leads to consumers gaining more information for food-related purposes. This information can be anything like “instructions for recipes and cooking, comparing food products, or even evaluating a restaurant.” These habits/tools can lead to decision making-which can include “selecting, purchasing, and/or eating certain foods or dishes” (Listia Rini, 2024).
Another area of dominated discussion revolving food and social media is examining how cooking and food influencers on social media affect adolescents in a positive and negative way. There are many studies that examine how social media can promote healthy eating and cooking habits. One study done at Old Dominion University in Virgina, talks about how social media can help spread information about heathy eating habits to low-income populations (Qi Zhang, 2021). Another study was done by the University of Sydney in Australia that explores how social media helped give young adults culinary skills training. It was also found in that study that social media helped educate adolescents about calcium-containing foods, which directly encouraged them to intake more calcium in their diet. (Vienna Bramston, 2020).
This discussion about food and social media also has its negatives regarding adolescents. There has been lots of extensive research that examines the connection between the presence of food on social media and how it affects self-perception and body image of adolescents. Kim Rounsefell a lead dietary technician, discusses how the period of adolescence is very much affected by these ideas on food on social media. Adolescence is a pivotal and transitional period of life where eating habits begin to develop, and the rising use of social media is affecting the way young women view food and their own body. Rounsefell vocalizes that social media has its positives and negatives regarding this realm, depending on how the individual uses this social media, but it quite frequently can have a harmful impact on body image. Many adolescent women compare themselves with others on the internet and some may even have participated in “self-objectification”. Through comparison and self-objectification, it can result in “habitual monitoring of their bodies' appearance.”
In all, lots of research has been done regarding cooking and eating habits presented in social media and how it affects general consumer behavior and purchasing. Additionally, there are many studies examining the possible positive and negative effects on adolescents due to the food/cooking influencers and they see on social media platforms. As the use of social media platforms grows, online communities and influencers grow. We know that this growing use affects adolescents in positive and negative ways, However, there has been little to no research on how young adults are viewing and reacting to baking on social media. It is generally perceived that baking is a hobby mostly performed by older age groups. But is this rising use of these online baking communities and influencers affecting the young adult age group as well? There isn't a lot of research on if the rising trends of aesthetic baking on social media changes the way adolescents view baking or practice baking, which is important research I plan to uncover.
Objectives / Specific Aims
In this project the goal is to discover how social media has affected baking habits and perceptions of baking in young adults ages eighteen to twenty-six. I want to discover the following 3 objectives:
- How many adolescents encounter baking influencers or communities on their social media?
- What is the general attitude from young adults regarding baking influencers or communities?
- Do young adults follow through on recipes or processes from videos on social media platforms?
What I expect to know at the end of this project is how many adolescents partake in the hobby of baking due to social media, as well as how adolescents generally perceive and feel about baking online.
Methods
For my research project I plan to perform two research methods to collect the necessary data: an observational study and sending out a survey.
My first method will be to analyze an online baking community on Facebook or Instagram. With this method of data collection, I will be focusing more on an observational aspect, but it will obviously run a bit differently because it is online. My plan is to join a certain online baking community on a social media platform such as Facebook or Instagram and locate posts regarding baking recipes. Within these communities and posts, I will analyze what people are commenting. In the comments I will focus on the key words and commonalities and differences within them. I will also try to focus on whether these comments are generally more positive or negative regarding these influencers or recipes. Within these online communities or posts about baking, I will gauge an estimate of how many adolescents are participating. The way I will do this is check people's bios and see if I can determine their general age from it.
Another step I plan to take is to plant my own comments within a post maybe saying something like “Late to this post, how many have tried this recipe?” to see how many people are following through on these recipes. My second method of research is sending out a survey to a sample of 100 UWL college students to analyze the attitudes and habits of young adults and baking. I plan to use Qualtrics for my survey and format as listed below.
The survey questions I plan to send out include the following:
- What is your gender?
- How old are you?
- Do you enjoy baking?
- How often do you bake?
- What social media platforms do you use (check all the following that apply--Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube)?
- Other (please list)
- Have you ever seen a baking video or recipe pop up on your social media feed?
- If you answered yes to the previous question, answer the following?
- How many times do baking videos pop up on your feed?
- Have you ever tried a recipe that has come up on your feed?
- Do you ever come back to these recipes once you are done? Do you write them down, save a video, etc.?
- Have you ever seen, heard of or been a part of an online baking community?
Final Products and Dissemination
The results of this project will be presented at the UWL Research and Creativity Symposium, as a poster presentation.
References/Bibliography
Bramston, V., Rouf, A., & Allman-Farinelli, M. (2020). The development of cooking videos to encourage calcium intake in young adults. Nutrients, 12(5), 1236. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051236
Rendeci, Z. C. (2022). The impact of digital media on Consumer Culture. Journal of Applied And Theoretical Social Sciences, 4, 78–90. https://doi.org/10.37241/jatss.2022.58
Rini, L., Schouteten, J. J., Faber, I., Bom Frøst, M., J A Perez-Cueto, F., & De Steur, H. (2024). Social Media and Food Consumer Behavior: A systematic review. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 143, 104290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2023.104290
Rounsefell, K., Gibson, S., McLean, S., Blair, M., Molenaar, A., Brennan, L., Truby, H., & McCaffrey, T. A. (2019). Social media, body image and food choices in Healthy Young Adults: A mixed methods systematic review. Nutrition & Dietetics, 77(1), 19–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/1747-0080.12581
Sokolova, K., Vessal, S. R., & Perez, C. (2024). Home cooking in the digital age: When observing food influencers on social media triggers the imitation of their practices. Psychology & Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21973
Van der Bend, D. L., Jakstas, T., van Kleef, E., Shrewsbury, V. A., & Bucher, T. (2022). Adolescents’ exposure to and evaluation of food promotions on social media: A multi-method approach. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-022-01310-3 YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhkqs6bAzs8. Accessed 18 Aug. 2024.
Zhang, Q., Panichelli, J., & Hall, L. A. (2021). Assessment of Cooking Matters Facebook Platform to promote healthy eating behaviors among low-income caregivers of young children in the United States: A pilot study. Nutrients, 13(8), 2694. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082694