Every day the internet gets congested because millions of people upload photos of their breakfast: freshly pressed orange juice or coffee in which the chocolate powder forms a satanic sign. A healthy muesli or a swordfish filet. Eggs and bacon. Pizza and doughnuts.

I recognize five potential motives behind this prevalent habit:

• Some people’s lives are not very exciting or fulfilled, and breakfast may indeed be the highlight of their existence. Sad, but comprehensible.
• Some want to show off how healthy or how little (diet) they eat. But the healthiest breakfast is pointless if you get into the car instead of on the bicycle to get to work afterwards.
• Others, particularly recent arrivals to the middle class, want to show off how much food they have. Understandable after years of deprivation in the slum or the refugee camp.
• Single women taking a photo of an overladen breakfast table do so in order to signal: “Look, guys, I would have enough food to support a man.” Desperate and sad, the bad ending is foreseeable (short affair, accidental pregnancy, et cetera).
• Children, teenagers and young adults (up to their second university degree) post such photos to avoid their mother calling every day, asking “Have you already had a proper breakfast?”

When I see these photos, I always scream out in horror: “But where is the newspaper?” As far back as I can remember, the Washington Post or the Economist was a more important part of breakfast than oatmeal. All you breakfast photographers, don’t you read anything in the morning? What an uninformed start into the day! After all, the perusal of printed matter is what differentiates humans from animals.

Just as an example, this is how my breakfast table looked yesterday:

Rich in vitamins (hot pepper in the sandwich), refreshing (cola), but also intellectually nourishing. With a few hours of reading for breakfast, you will approach your day with much more creativity and filled with new ideas.

Enjoy your breakfast!

(Zur deutschsprachigen Fassung.)