According to The Hartmann Group´s report titled Food Culture 2012 Year in Review, social media play an important role in USA food habits.

Over the past year, their ethnographers have crisscrossed the United Status, immersed deeply into consumer culture, to uncover new insights  of the ever-changing consumer.

Within food culture, Americans are witnessing a tectonic shift from a cooking culture to an eating culture. When most of us grew up, we were part of a Cooking Culture.

Research on social media and food is clear on one thing: Americans love to share. Meal experiences of friends and family used to be private, but with Facebook posts, websites like Yelp, and apps like Foodspotting, eating is increasingly a public affair. And it’s a two-way conversation. 54% of consumers say they use social media to discover new foods; the same percentage says they use it to share their food experiences. Though consumers are increasingly eating alone, they aren’t isolated. Social media will continue to bring them together over a plate of something delicious.

Eating alone is fast becoming the new normal; it’s as normal as eating together. The eating alone occasion does not necessarily mean that they are lonely: while eating or drinking, 36% of consumers text with a friend or family member, 29% use a social networking site or app at home, and 18% use a social networking site or app while eating away from home.

On online shopping, consumers now have more options open to them to fill their every need for foods and beverages—and shop without stepping foot inside a grocery store. While online grocery may seem in its infancy compared with the more grown-up durable consumer goods categories that were the boon of e-commerce success, it is a sales channel ripe with opportunity. According to Nielson, annual online sales for consumer packaged goods (CPGs) are expected to double from $12 billion in 2010 to $25 billion by 2014.