Why are we all addicted to watching YouTube while eating?

According to Know Your Meme, “Eating Without YouTube” refers to a series of memes that imagine that eating a meal without watching a YouTube video can have various negative effects, such as: B. a hospital stay, or describe it as a difficult or impossible feat. Simply put: We would die if the YouTube video wasn’t playing in the background of our celebration.

Obviously, the concept of dinner and a show is nothing new. Roman banquets date back to ancient Rome and featured feasts accompanied by music, poetry and theatrical performances. In the Middle Ages, spectators tore open turkey legs while tournament riders rode horses through arenas. During the Prohibition era, speakeasies became popular venues for jazz performances. Then there’s the true precursor to YouTube food: the TV dinner. Frozen food on a tray coincided with the boom in television ownership in the late 1950s. These days there are Alamo Drafthouses and Movie Taverns where moviegoers are served a sumptuous dinner in comfortable armchairs. Not only do we have the luxury of spending over $20 on a ticket to see the hottest new release, but we can also overpay for a drink and a burger while we watch the movie!

Say what you will about our ever-shrinking attention spans thanks to our phone-centric, algorithm-dominated world, but humans have always wanted to distract themselves from intrusive thoughts with a meal and entertainment.

But when we eat at home, we have a vast, endless flood of options. We can mindlessly scroll through various social media apps. We can choose one of the many streaming services that we can immerse ourselves in. Movies, hour-long television episodes and 30-minute sitcom reruns are available to us. Why do so many of us watch any YouTube video?

Even though I participate in this YouTube eating ritual almost every day, I have no obvious explanation for it. So I decided to ask the question to a real expert: a moderator of r/mealtimevideos, a subreddit with two million members who share specific YouTube videos that they think go well with breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

“I find the best content [for watching while eating] is often under half an hour but over 10 minutes,” says the presenter, who uses the handle WritewayHome. “It needs to be compelling and something that isn’t too visually demanding, that you can listen to for the most part, and that doesn’t make you feel like you’re missing something if you look away.”

YouTube allows viewers to access exactly what they want, be it comedy skits, gaming streams, commentary videos or mukbangs, a popular genre that involves YouTubers overeating, often from a chain restaurant or fast food joint . “When watching TV, it’s harder to understand exactly what you want to watch,” adds WritewayHome.

For solo travelers who want to eat along with food-related YouTube series Eat the menua popular show from The Try Guys that gets tens of millions of views per episode and even interview shows like Hotwhere celebrities fight their way through a series of increasingly spicier wings, could help viewers feel less alone while enjoying their meal.

Then there’s the simple excitement of browsing through YouTube and realizing your favorite artist has just uploaded a new video. “All the big YouTubers – MrBeast, Lemmino, Veritasium, etc. – often go viral and there is a race to get their content published [on the sub]“says the moderator. “Most of them don’t post too regularly, so it’s always a pleasure when they post something new. I’ve noticed that a lot of the best content delves deep into topics – people on Meal Time Videos are hungry to learn, understand their world, and enjoy a good meal while doing it.”

So maybe it’s not about turning off our burnt-out brains for 20 minutes and immersing yourself in mindless consumption. Rather, YouTube Meals are about using the little free time we have in our hectic days to learn something new through a video essay, gain a new perspective through comments, or simply find comfort in not being alone to eat.