The digitalization of young women's food environments in Norway

Abstract

Food environments, which significantly influence dietary patterns and health outcomes, are undergoing an accelerated process of digitalization. Young people are vulnerable to the adverse effects of food environment digitalization, with young women particularly affected due to their heavy exposure to social media. This study explores the process of digitalization of young women's food environments in Norway. Using a grounded theory approach, we conducted 14 semi-structured interviews with young women aged 18–25 years in Norway, complemented by an analysis of secondary materials such as websites, smartphone apps, and social media platforms identified during the interviews. We propose a theoretical model outlining four degrees of digitalization in young women's food environment interactions: analogue, digitally mediated, digitally enhanced, and digital-only. These interactions were influenced by processes at an individual level, through which young women strove to preserve their agency while seeking novelty, entertainment, social connection and self-optimization in relation to their food practices and bodies. Simultaneously, societal processes such as the normalization of technology use, increased personalization of digital services and intensification of exposure to digital food content and marketing shaped young women's action. These can conflict with their individual motivations or complement and reinforce them, thus creating tensions in how agency is exercised in increasingly digitalized food environments. We argue that the digitalization of food environments is likely to augment the complexity and intensity of their effects on health and nutrition, warranting further investigation.