That’s when the only recipes you can find for it are ones that have been jazzed up to be more ‘original’ so someone could make a blog post to attract jaded gourmet clicks.

Then you get travesties like the fad for beetroot-based hummus.

Social Media itself doesn’t imo, but if a food becomes trendy, often times restaurants or bistros try to sell that food and do it badly, but cheaply. So people who don’t know better could buy it there, at times increasing issues for people who (1) make a good but pricier option or (2) want to find good options but are overwhelmed by bad ones. In my opinion, this happened with Chimney Cakes for example. They have Hungarian and Romanian roots and in the original form I think it’s a very nice treat. But a stale and weird version filled with shit like ice cream has become so popular for tourists, that it has become harder in many places to find good, fresh chimney cake.