From fries with indulgent toppings in Amsterdam, viral pizza slices in New York, pistachio gelato in Trastevere, churros covered in hot chocolate next to Puerta del Sol, to salt beef bagels in London, the global foodie map is now full of stops you have to make.
Not to even begin with our own viral foods.
These are only some of the dozens of foods for which visitors are willing to wait in line for 1+ hour in order to have the chance to try them.
Psychologists, however, say that these queues reveal far less about the food and far more about how social media and status are changing the way we travel today.
They usually do not discourage them, but instead give them confidence that they are making a “right choice,” according to experts.
Above all, however, a long queue outside a restaurant activates strong psychological stimuli, mainly FOMO, that is, the fear of missing out on something in which others are participating.
Most of those waiting in these lines have already “discovered” the food online before they arrive.
Travel videos on TikTok create the illusion of discovering a “hidden gem,” while in practice everyone ends up at the same viral spots promoted by algorithms.
According to psychologists, for many it is more convenient to wait in a huge queue than to step out of their comfort zone and make the effort to search for and try unknown places.
Because algorithms usually promote what is already popular, the same places are shown again and again.
This affects two things:
The lives of locals, who are called upon to deal with pollution, noise and poor crowd management that gathers around such establishments.
The behavior of travelers, as their choices are now shaped by algorithms and not, for example, by travel articles.
FOMO, the need for convenience, even good food are not enough to explain why people tolerate all this waiting.
Beyond eating the food, they often care just as much about filming themselves while waiting and recording the food itself before taking the first bite.
These queues are linked to the gradual transformation of travel into a kind of “performance” given by visitors, with social media turning into a “stage.”
Celebrities and influencers feed this vicious cycle. In order to remain in the spotlight, they visit viral restaurants and their followers often imitate their choices in order to feel that they belong to the same community.
This very tendency toward imitation lies at the root of recurring travel patterns but also patterns within our own city: why we all end up preferring the same bakery, the same bar, the same restaurant.
