Food is the constant of social media. In the earliest days of Instagram, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the app was created solely for sharing #FoodPorn; there were just a sprinkling of Valencia-filtered sunsets and selfies that were 95% fringe to be seen among the many, many plates.

For a long time, the world-record holder for the most-liked Instagram post was simply a picture of an egg. YouTube has thrived as platform for long-running series revolving around food, from Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Chicken Shop Date to the celebrity magnet Hot Ones. TikTok is bursting at the seams with taste tests and food tours around every major city in the world.

Since I secured my own handles back in 2010, I’ve been unable to scroll past something delicious without engaging. And 13 years of this, it seems, has altered my brain chemistry in a way I’m starting to resent.

Last week, I was flicking way back through my phone’s camera roll in search of a very important screenshot, and could I find it among the hundreds – no, thousands – of food pictures? Nope. There it was: my entire culinary history flashing before my eyes.

The millennial curse? This is why we still feel the urge to take pictures of our food