On March 19 2025, a photo of Dame Mary Berry appeared on my Instagram feed. Her familiar smile, accompanied by a smart pink top and blue jeans, was a warm surprise that happily interrupted my doom scroll.
The photo was accompanied by this caption:
“My 90th Year is full of surprises and I am kicking it off this year with starting my own Instagram account. As I get to grips with it do follow along for the journey. MB x”
I was chuffed to see Mary Berry on Instagram – as a student who can’t watch satellite television, I was thrilled to see her engaging with media that was accessible to me. Berry has been one of the faces of my childhood. I grew up baking from her cookbooks with my Nana, and now watch old Bake Off episodes for comfort at university.
Since then, the post has amassed 100k likes, and Mary Berry’s account (although currently without a blue verification tick) has been tagged in well-known accounts, including British Vogue, BBC One Show, and BBC Food.
The Great British Bake Off star has since made a total of three independent posts, and she has gained 107k followers. Not bad, for a 12-day-old account. Berry has certainly successfully branched out further from her beautiful website which has kept her fans up-to-date (and still does.)
A generational gap
Mary Berry, as she mentioned, recently celebrated her 90th birthday. Starting up an Instagram account must be a foreign and strange concept to her, as Instagram was released in 2010 – when Berry was 75 years old. This generational gap creates a barrier for folk who weren’t raised alongside the birth of social media. I was six when Instagram was released. I don’t remember a world without social media, which is a strange trait that I share with the rest of my generation.
So much of our information, news, advertising, and entertainment now centres around our phones, which older generations struggle with. I find myself frequently assisting my 81-year-old Grandma with avoiding scams, setting up Snapchat (which feels very strange, I must say), and safely using Instagram. The traditional media that my Grandma knows well is now inaccessible to me, much like how the modern media that makes up my life is inaccessible to her.
Seeing a British Icon from this generation such as Mary Berry breach this gap is a wonderful move for making social media more accessible for older folk. This Instagram account shows people like my Grandma that there are people similar to her on these sites. Berry sets an example here, opening up a new world of communication and connection to our grandparents who may have been too intimidated to investigate it before.
It also goes to show that the pre-social media world is quickly becoming a forgotten concept. The traditional media that our grandparents were familiar with, the use of radio and newspaper, fades rapidly as the world storms forward.
Do we hold onto this past, or embrace the future? Only time will tell. For now, at least we can enjoy Mary Berry’s wonderful cakes, recipes, and life updates from the palm of our hands.
You can read more of Braw Magazine’s Hot Goss here.
Featured Image Credit: @damemaryberry on Instagram, edited on Canva to include Instagram’s Logo
Journalism student at the University of Stirling & BRAW Magazine editor 24/25 and 25/26 🙂
You can see my portfolio here: https://www.clippings.me/alicepollard
