In the modern world, people eat with all sorts of utensils and methods, the most common including eating with a fork, spoon, and knife, followed closely by eating with chopsticks and eating with hands. Out these various methods, one of the easiest utensils to use is the fork, which can be used to eat almost any kind of dish. However, fork usage was not always as common or popular as it is now.
In ancient times, people ate only with their hands. Over time, people began creating various utensils that can be used to eat with. Spoons and knives began to be used in the Western world, starting off as utensils only the wealthy used before trickling down to the lower classes, and chopsticks were used in parts of the Eastern world. The first fork came about around the same time as the knife, spoon, and chopsticks; however, the earliest forks merely consisted of two prongs and were only used for cooking.
Nevertheless, despite the availability of these new forms of tableware, it was still common for people to eat with their hands in the Western world. In fact, there were even rules about how many fingers people could use to eat with when dining, as using all five fingers signifies low class and bad manners. So, when forks were first introduced as an eating utensil, people didn't know what to do with them. It didn't help that the Church viewed forks as blasphemy either. The Church believed that God gave humans fingers and hands so they can touch and eat God's food, which forks prevented. While this didn't stop the rich from buying their gold and silver forks, it probably contributed to the long-lasting unpopularity of forks.
Forks remained as an uncommon piece of tableware for a long time. Forks weren't accepted at the dining table until the 18th century in Europe, and they didn't become commonplace in American dining rooms until the early 19th century. Now, forks are one of the most commonly used pieces of cutlery used in the world.