*#foodie: Implications of Interacting with Social Media for Memory* Jordan Zimmerman & Sarah Brown-Schmidt (Vanderbilt University) jordan.e.zimmerman@vanderbilt.edu Social media is an increasingly popular outlet for social communication. On many social media platforms, the user experience involves commenting on or responding to user-generated content such as images of cats, food, and people. In 2 experiments, we examine how the act of commenting on social media images impacts subsequent memory for those images, using Instagram posts as a test case. This project was inspired by recent findings from laboratory studies of conversation that found that describing a picture for a conversational partner boosts recognition memory for those images1,2. Here we aim to understand how this finding translates to the more ecologically valid realm of social media interactions. A 2nd motivation for the study is the popularity of food and dieting related content on Instagram, and prior findings that use of Instagram in particular is associated with disordered eating behavior3-5. In* Experiment 1 *(N = 100) participants (Ps) were recruited thorough Mechanical Turk. Average age was 37 years; Ps reported gender as female (n=46), male (n=53), genderqueer (n=1). The materials were assembled by perusing a large number of Instagram posts. Posts featuring food served as critical stimuli, and were further divided into the categories of “healthy” (e.g. fruit, salad) and “unhealthy” food (e.g. brownies, fries). Posts featuring dogs, cats, nature were used as control images. In total, Ps viewed 100 Instagram posts, 20 in each of the 5 categories. For half of the posts, Ps were prompted to provide a comment using the same phrasing as on the Instagram platform (e.g., “Add a comment…” à P types: “*yummy I want one!”*). After viewing the 100 Instagram posts, Ps completed 17 math problems as a distractor task. Ps then completed a recognition memory task, viewing a series of 200 images, half of which were old and seen in the exposure phase and half of which were new, and responding whether they had seen the picture in the prior phase or not. Across experimental lists, we counterbalanced which images were old/new, and which images were commented on vs. not. Lastly, Ps completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) to assess eating disorder symptomology. *Results:* Memory data were analyzed using a generalized mixed effects model. Memory was good (*z*=22.11, *p*<.0001); healthy food was remembered less well than control images (z = -2.87, p < .01), unhealthy food was remembered *better* than control (z = 2.69, p < .01). Previously viewed images were more likely to be correctly recognized if P had commented on them (*z* = 18.09, *p*<.0001)—for each additional word in the comment, odds of correct recognition was 1.37 times greater (*z* = 6.09, *p*<.0001). Model based estimates of the reliability of these effects revealed a lack of stable individual differences in memory for food, preventing a meaningful test of the relationship of memory for food-related posts with EDE-Q. *Experiment 2 *(N = 150) was a direct replication of E1, except the sample was restricted to Ps who identified as female and between the ages of 18-30, a sample with higher risk for disordered eating behaviors6-8. *Results:* As in E1, memory was overall good, (z=30.23, p<.0001), with unhealthy food remembered better (z=8.81,p<.0001). Commented-upon images were remembered better (*z* = 37.41, *p*<.0001), and for each additional word produced in the comment, the odds of correct recognition were 1.20 times greater(z=4.61, *p*<.0001). As in E1, the memory effects were low in reliability by-participants indicating a lack of stable individual differences in memory for Healthy and Unhealthy food in particular, thus preventing examination of a relationship with EDE-Q. *Discussion:* Across 2 experiments we observe that commenting on Instagram posts consistently boosts subsequent recognition, and that correct recognition increases with comment length. These findings extend to social media interaction prior findings that generating and producing information 9,10 including linguistic information in conversation,1,2,11 boosts memory for it. In both E1-E2, “unhealthy” food images such as chocolates were particularly well remembered, however these memory findings did not relate to self-reported eating behavior. Taken together, our findings show that the way in which we communicate and engage with social media content shapes subsequent memory for it, raising new questions about how our online lives persist in memory over time, potentially shaping future behavior. #foodie_Implications_video.mp4 <https://drive.google.com/a/vanderbilt.edu/file/d/1BmDrdGg-w4ilMCKsxwqWqCCQtiCguMPv/view?usp=drive_web>