I'm sure that anyone who has a Facebook has come across the 45-second-long Tasty videos. These videos are the shortest ways to learn a new, trendy recipe. I've seen recipes from as simple as buffalo chicken dip and as extravagant as cheesy pesto-stuffed salmon over the past few months. There's not only Tasty, but there's Food Porn, Tip Hero and Delish, just to name a few. My Facebook Friends share them daily, and I'm guilty of it too! So guilty that when I looked back on my newsfeed to see when the first video I shared was, I got tired of looking because I was back almost a year and had counted over two dozen shared videos.
So, how did this pandemic start? For starters, BuzzFeed owns Tasty, so they already had a pretty large following before deciding to make these short videos. Within a month of beginning, Tasty had over 3.7 million subscribers. What helps, I think, is that their videos automatically play. I personally will watch the videos in silence and see if I deem it worthy enough to share. While they're quick and easy to watch—and dare I say, entertaining—I have noticed a couple of downfalls.
The first Tasty meal that I made was a garlic knot pizza bake, and it actually was not by Tasty—it was shared from seattlepi.com's Facebook page. While I was trying to mix everything together, I found myself watching and rewatching the video a handful of times, as I couldn't pause since, you know, I was busy pouring the stuff into the mixing bowl. When I originally stumbled upon this video, it didn't have the full recipe link that it does now. I've noticed that most videos I see now do in fact have the links, so I don't have to worry about that. That being said, some find it easier to watch the video rather than reading the instructions on the recipe.
That brings us to another downfall. Like I said, some people find it easier to learn by watching rather than reading. Since the videos are so short, they do not show how much of something is needed. Now this can easily be solved by clicking on the link to view the full recipe, but like I said, some people prefer to watch the video.
These two downfalls are trivial. They're small, and honestly, it doesn't affect the rate at which people are sharing these videos. For example, this churro ice cream bowl video was first shared only in April 2016 and it has over 1.7 million views. And the bacon, egg and cheese breakfast bread boat video has almost 2 million views. BuzzFeed knew what they were doing by creating Tasty—people all over the world are eating it up, literally!
