Considering the changes in social relationships and social practices across the planet, caused by digitalization processes, networking, and Society 4.0, this chapter aims to problematize the connections between digital emotions in relation to food, new properties of politics of sensibilities around food digital practices, and the operation of algorithms and big data on digital platforms. With that objective, the authors focus on investigating food practices on Instagram, based on the figure of food influencers and the digital emotions that are crystallized there in relation to eating.
TopIntroduction
The world faces a series of technological, economic, political, and cultural transformations that have modified the ways of being and perceiving the world, framed in what we know as society or revolution 4.0. Some of the technological advances manifested: the emergence of microelectronics, information technology, biotechnology, materials technology, the Internet of things, the Internet of services, advanced robotics, Artificial Intelligence, additive manufacturing, simulations, integration of vertical and horizontal systems, Big Data, cloud manufacturing, nanotechnology, cybersecurity, intelligent drones and augmented reality (Nagao Menezes, 2020).
The establishment of these new technologies, the acceleration of digital consumption processes, and the new productive dynamics typical of the 4.0 revolution establish modifications in the notion of work, social relations, our relationship with the environment, and therefore changes in the processes of social structuring.
There are multiple changes and transformations within the framework of the so-called 4.0 revolution. It is worth highlighting here the implication of changes in social practices and in the ways of relating, which refer, among other things, to the massification of the smartphone and other mobile devices, as well as the massive participation of subjects in digital platforms. The constant use of devices and social network immersion establishes the production of new images of the world (Scribano, 2017), built from the daily incursion of subjects into digital media. This incursion has its effects on the ways of seeing/knowing and feeling the world.
On the other hand, regarding the manifestations of digitalization in the ways of structuring society, it occurs from the establishment of new politics of sensibilities1 With it, the reconfiguration of perception and notions of space-time in the digitalized world (Scribano and Lisdero, 2019), approaching social reality essential from there.
The new properties of the politics of digital sensibilities imply a set of cognitive/affective social practices, which refer to the organization of the day/night detached from the experience of the subjects who experience it, and to the modification of classifications of sensations and evaluations about world modifications (Scribano, 2020).
However, this new economic model is based on using a structure of large amounts of data from and on digital platforms (Srnicek, 2017; Steinhoff, 2022). These data are built from the information that people provide by expressing themselves, working, studying, buying, and interacting with others, from social networks and digital platforms. That's why it is necessary to address the processing of that information and its expression in the algorithms used by social networks, to reflect on the changes in social relations, digital emotions, and the ways of being in the world today.
One of the transformations that the mass use of social networks has promoted alludes to food practices. Today food practices are being modified by digital consumption, the proliferation of information about food in blogs and social networks, the emergence of new characters such as influencers on platforms that produce senses and meanings about food, and the practices of cooking. These practices became data-driven events that can be tracked, quantified, and managed online, implying transformations in eating practices and in the politics of sensibilities that are organized around them.
In this sense, we are interested in addressing the daily eating practices that are outlined in social networks and the sensibilities that are hatched concerning them. This proposal which emerges from my master's thesis aims to problematize the connections between new properties of food digital practices, the digital emotions that appear there, and the operation of algorithms and Big Data on Instagram. Other objectives are problematizing the logic of big data and the operation of algorithms on digital platforms; detailing the transformations in society 4.0 and the role of food influencers in what refers to changes in digital food practices; and addressing a characterization of the digital food practices scrutinized on Instagram and the emotions that arise there.