The girl’s bathroom door flies open with a bang. I glare at my friend, wondering what she could have possibly been doing in the bathroom for fifteen minutes. “I have a good reason! I was enhancing a really important picture,” she exclaims, shoving her iPhone in my face. My curiosity piqued, I inspect the image closely. It’s a black and white picture of a Coca Cola can.

For the most part, I’ve never understood the appeal of most social media. I can proudly state that I do not have a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. I don’t need to know what my friend did in the last twenty minutes while she went downstairs to the bathroom.

At the same time, I also understand that other people don’t share my view on social media and find comfort in posting status updates on a regular basis. I respect that fact because most of our generation has grown up with social media as part of their everyday lifestyle.

However, there is one specific type of post on social networking websites that never ceases to irritate me: pictures of food. What aspect of a pack of M&Ms can appeal to someone so much that they feel the need to post a picture on Instagram featuring the candy? Obviously there must be individuals out there who know the answer to this question since they feel compelled to post pictures of Subway sandwiches and Starbucks coffee cups at least once a week if not more.

Enhancing the picture of a particular food to make it seem “artsy” does not make it any more appealing to everyone else. It only triggers questions such as “Why does your ice cream sundae look so shiny in this picture?” or “Did the sun really cast such a perfect halo of light around your Kit Kat bar?”

Even if the food picture that someone posted succeeds in impressing others, nothing has been achieved other than making people hungry. If that is the intent, then congratulations. That person’s marvelous image of a mug of hot chocolate has inspired twenty people to go raid their refrigerators for food. Well done, food picture posters.

I personally believe Instagram and Facebook were created for people to post pictures of themselves or a unique scenic view. Posting pictures of common foods that I see everyday at lunch is just excessive and unnecessary. There is very little difference between an enhanced picture of a hot dog and a regular hot dog: why should the edited picture of a hot dog have the privilege of being posted on Instagram?

After my friend left the bathroom, she posted the picture of the Coca Cola can, and it earned 40 likes. Yes, 40 likes for a black and white picture of a Coke. It makes absolutely no sense to me. If anyone has Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger’s contact information, please let me know, so I can personally ask them how they have let the Instagram craze escalate to this point.

Meanwhile, I will continue to fret in silence over what social media has led our generation to become. Perhaps one day, the world of Instagram will understand my pain.