315 Special: Cracking Down on Virtual Life with Digital Side Dishes

Every year around 315 – China’s Consumer Rights Day on 15 March – food safety issues come into sharp focus. Yet the impact that “digital side dishes”, a kind of virtual food, have on eating habits and health has not received anything near the attention they deserve.

Short videos, TV dramas, variety shows, podcasts… These pieces of content, collectively dubbed “digital side dishes”, have quietly woven themselves into many people’s daily routines. Why does a meal feel nearly impossible to swallow without a video playing alongside it?

In the “digital side dishes” story-collection that Foodthink launched last year, we found that more and more people are growing accustomed to eating alone, with digital side dishes becoming the “cure” for the loneliness and boredom that creep in over a solitary meal. The classic dramas and popular variety shows everyone raves about, along with the danmaku flooding in from every corner of the country, have become their quickest way to connect with the world from within their solitary lives.

But the price of over-immersion in a virtual world is that our attention and energy are hijacked by video platforms, and the toll this takes on our physical and mental wellbeing. Perhaps many people have already sensed the negative impact “digital side dishes” have on our lives, yet few would openly put it into words.

In recent years, research teams have already found that being absorbed in electronic devices while eating increases total calorie intake by 15%, and may also lead to gastric dysfunction, indigestion, nutritional imbalances, and other issues.

The three hosts of this episode of Food Talk are themselves heavy “digital side dish” users. From classic dramas to stress-relief short dramas, they shared their own mealtime viewing habits and explored the loneliness, efficiency anxiety, and spiritual emptiness behind the practice.

Do digital side dishes really ease our loneliness? What impact does a long-term “diet” of digital side dishes have on our health? Beyond digital side dishes, what other ways do we have to heal loneliness and anxiety? Are we using digital side dishes to make our meals more enjoyable, or are we losing the true taste of food in the company of digital companions?

We find ourselves asking: have screens reshaped our eating habits, or are we using screens to seek some form of compensation for life?

This Episode’s Hosts

Xiao Jing

A 100-time rewatch champion of Modern Family, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The IT Crowd

Yu Yang

A chronic “digital side dish” addict who practically lives on Bilibili

Li Ye

Picks shows as carefully as a meal – immersing herself in Twin Peaks, Pittsburgh and the Wuyue Kingdom

Timeline

00:19 What are “digital side dishes”? And why can’t we go without them?

02:56 Personal watchlists revealed: from medical dramas and My Own Swordsman to mindless short-series

10:29 Listener stories: loneliness, anxiety and digital side dishes

23:45 Do digital side dishes really make you consume 15% more calories?

29:37 The rituals of living alone and Vlog-style dinners

42:12 How to “quit”: finding quality ingredients, mindful eating and building supportive relationships

45:17 A path forward: giving entertainment back to leisure, and meals back to meals

This Episode’s Hosts

Timeline

Published by Foodthink