Korean social media fuels sudden food crazes

Once the craze for Dubai’s chewy pistachio cookie, Duzzonku, faded, another trend quickly took its place. Spring cabbage bibimbap flooded social media feeds, pushing up the price of what had been an ordinary seasonal side dish by about 30 percent in just one week. The spotlight soon shifted again, this time to butter rice cakes. While Duzzonku now lingers unsold on store shelves, bakeries known for butter rice cakes are drawing lines that stretch up to three hours.

The pattern is by now familiar. Social media endorsements and reviews propel a trend to its peak, only for franchises and convenience stores to follow and hasten its decline. Most of these crazes lose momentum within three to four months and rarely last beyond half a year. Yet each new wave generates the same level of excitement. While food and beverage trends spreading through platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are a global phenomenon, the pace and intensity in Korea stand out.

Korea has long been quick to adopt and discard trends, shaped by a culture attuned to social cues and collective behavior. But the rise of algorithm-driven short-form content, including YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, has accelerated this cycle to an unusual degree. The Duzzonku boom, which drove an 84 percent jump in pistachio import costs over a year as of January, illustrates how quickly online attention can distort real-world prices. These distortions carry clear social costs, while the pressure to keep up adds to growing consumer fatigue.

More troubling is that these trends are not as organic as they appear. Algorithms, not individuals, now play a central role in shaping what gains attention. Content that highlights visually appealing textures, such as chewy or crispy foods, and that can be easily replicated is more likely to be promoted. What looks like spontaneous popularity is often the result of algorithmic curation. In a landscape overflowing with content, attention converges on a narrow set of viral items, narrowing rather than expanding cultural diversity.

As noted in the book "Stolen Focus," modern algorithms are designed to capture attention and hold it. Their purpose is to keep users engaged for as long as possible, repeatedly feeding them short, stimulating content. Over time, this weakens individual preferences, replacing them with immediate, reflexive responses.

The book argues that declining attention in the digital age is not a personal failing but a structural issue. The same logic applies to today’s rapidly cycling trends. What appears to be consumer choice often reflects the mechanics of an algorithm-driven environment.

Following trends for fun is hardly new. But when cultural patterns across an entire society begin to mirror the priorities of algorithms optimized for engagement and profit, the issue warrants closer scrutiny. The deeper one looks, the harder it becomes to dismiss these shifts as harmless entertainment.