Topic/Question:
What do people usually do when they are at the George Sherman Union’s food court? Is there a difference in behavior between those who study or eat alone and those who do that with friends?
Description:
My goal is to explore the atmosphere at the GSU food court. I want to learn whether being alone vs. being with someone or a group affect people’s eating or working habits at the GSU. I don’t usually eat my lunch at the GSU, but most of my group meetings for different courses are held at the GSU. To prepare for data collection, I chose a table at a usually busy section of the court. I chose the time to be 3 pm to make sure my observation wasn’t influenced by other factors (like busy lunch time for example.) There were a number
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As a frequent visitor of the GSU (not the food court necessarily,) I was interested in knowing why the food court was always crowded and whether people’s behavior changes whether they were eating, working, alone or with friends. At first I was really excited to collect the data. The GSU is one of my favorite places on campus and it was interesting to sit there and observe people. The experience itself was okay at first, but then I saw one of my classmates at HS440 sit close by. Although she wasn’t part of the observation, I felt a little bit anxious as I thought that she must have seen me take notes; this made me a little bit self-conscious and more aware of my movement and typing sounds. After a while, I got to feel more comfortable as my classmate left. The observation process at first felt weird as I thought I was intruding on other people. But then again, after a while I got more comfortable which I believe had a positive effect on my notetaking as I began to look around more freely. I came in with the assumption that people who study alone at the GSU would be more distracted with everything around them. However, I did not notice such thing. As I mentioned in my findings, all students/people who were working (whether alone or with other people) displayed the same amount of attention to their
Yet, with personal experience in having worked in a cubicle setting and being a student, I often found myself looking forward to lunch as much to eat as to socialize with coworkers and friends. In a passage of her article, Widdicombe describes visiting Caltech and witnessing dinnertime, in which most “Skurves” were laying out dishes to get ready for dinner. However, a small minority of students sat surrounded by laptops and problem sets, nursing bottles of Soylent, ignoring the dinnertime commotion. Although they are being arguably more productive in their usage of time, they are missing out on socializing with their peers, an essential part of the college experience. In addition to nutritional value, meals offer an outlet for self-expression, bonding, and socializing that would be lost if everyone were to say- be carrying around a water bottle with a days supply of
Julie Guthman, the author of “The Food Police,” brings up the debate about the “epidemic of obesity” giving multiple examples of those who agree there is an epidemic of obesity; as well as those who disagree on the stance such as the author. Guthman brings the idea instead of pushing thin as the new beautiful to make suggestions to the food system so that everyone can benefit from making healthier choices and lives.
The observation occurred in the LNC lunchroom during the second lunch of the day. I observed two groups of people in the lunchroom. The first group I observed being a group of all males seated to the right of me. The second group being a group of all females seated in the middle of the cafeteria. The method of observation I used was naturalistic observation. The naturalistic observation experience during the LNC lunch period provided further meaning about or local, national, and global community.
The Organization The organization that I volunteered at was the Carroll County Food Pantry in Carrollton, Kentucky. This operation runs every Monday, Wednesday, Friday 3-5 p.m. for all community members, and on every third Wednesday 9:30 am-12: 30 pm specifically for the elderly. Throughout the week, the pantry gathers numerous volunteers. In fact, every month the local churches of Carroll County will rotate and work the food pantry on assigned days.
Some dining locations are open past 8:00 PM several nights of the week on-campus. However, many of these eating facilities are relatively unknown to a large portion of the underclassmen. Most are located under dorms and hidden from the student’s eyes. They are also incapable of holding a large amount of students simply because they don’t have the room.
The first place I went to was called “Front Street Foods” located at the Union Station on Front Street. Front Street Foods is a wide-ranging culinary market that showcases Toronto’s best chefs, restaurants, bakers, food entrepreneurs, and the fresh edible items they create. The music I heard in the background was a remix of hit-music played by a DJ. I think this music was being played because it was a Friday night with Blue Jay’s home game. Therefore, people were very excited and welcoming the weekends with great foods on the street. The music definitely was an add-on from the atmosphere of the place. People were enjoying the beat and bass and some were even dancing on the street. The pedestrians, not only noticed the music, but the sounds and good vibes also attracted them to join the culinary market to enjoy the atmosphere. In my opinion, having a DJ that plays the excellent music in such “event/festival” is a great idea. The remix that were played certainly helped the vendors to be more profitable by attracting more consumers from the streets, and also accelerated the atmosphere to the next level.
For my report, I observed the customers at a Starbucks in downtown St. Petersburg. Each time I visited this establishment, there were consistent factors as well as unique ones during each observation. The morning crowd of people was vastly different than the evening crowd. I did however see many parallels with the morning and lunch time crowd. Each time I visited, There seemed to be an upbeat and fast paced environment.
For my subgroup project, I decided to observe a group of teenage boys. Located at the intersection of Fullerton and central. The location seemed like any other McDonalds except the arrangement of the sits. They have a wide range of chairs and furniture located in the side of the entrance while the front part was wide. My subgroup was located in the side of the McDonalds near the restrooms. The methods I used were participant observation, informal interviewing, and formal interviewing. While I conducted my observations on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On October 8, 2013 from 3pm to 4:30pm, October 15 2013 from 3pm to 4:30pm, October 17 2013 from 3pm to 6pm and October 22 2013 from 3 to 6pm. My data collections used were participant observation, informal interviewing, formal interviewing, key consultants, and mapping.
Imagine that you walk into a cafeteria and you see children in line to buy lunch. The lunch is burnt and cold. You see the kids who bought lunch sit down and start asking people for food, they say no. At the end of the lunch period the kids lunch trays still have all the food on them. The children are starving and a lot of food was wasted. You don’t want that right? I believe that our school should get a new lunch menu because many students do not like the food served, there are not many options, and there are many problems with the food.
For the public space observation assignment, I went to Barnes and nobles from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. I sat to the left of the Starbucks counter next to the restroom facing those who were sitting and standing near me. Once I sat down, I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and began to observe what I saw. This assignment took me out of my comfort zone, giving me the opportunity to think, see, and hear like a sociologist. I was able to separate myself from the surrounding things, which helped me focus more on the behaviors and interactions of others. Because this is a place where people go to study and read the appropriate behavior would be to respect those around you by being quiet. Being quiet is extremely important in this particular space because
By using observation methods, a wide variety of behavior can be recorded. Picking through the garbage on the side of the road can reveal behaviors of fast-food customers, or sitting for only one hour in the university canteen to understand the gender differences in choosing a diet meal, or even watching the customer’s behavior from deciding which yogurt to be taken off its store shelves in the supermarket can also answer the question: Are the customers attracted by its appearance or flavor or price or brand or nutrition? The aim of this observation assignment is to evaluate and explain the different types of interactions between individuals and groups present, as well as the environment in which these interactions take place. The field observation was conducted at the Vietnamese fast-food restaurant named “We love Banhmi” in Budapest, and the role adopted, was that of observer as a non-participant. Group structures as well as overall activity, patterns of behavior, and the duration and timing of such behaviors and interactions were observed and recorded.
My research location is one of the most popular coffee shop in the city which is Starbucks that located at California and Sprues street in San Francisco. I am interested in this topics because it controls my attention to keep watch what others are doing and what is going on near me. This topic has a potential sociological significant because coffee shop is one of the most popular places that many people want to go. Starbucks is a famous coffee shop in the United States that has many customers. The, majority of customers were students who carrying bags, holding lap tops and books as well as a big number of Sutter Health Hospital employees who wear their uniforms and looking in their break time. Also there were a group of police officers who
American culture is incubated and hatched in the cafeteria. Students go to the dining hall to get the food their bodies need for proper nourishment. But, food is by no means the only thing that students get at the cafeteria - they are also served with social interaction. The cafeteria is a place which some students love and which others dread. It is generally an integral part of children's social lives from elementary school all the way into college. Why is the cafeteria so important? Because, in the cafeteria, popularity is determined, friends are made, styles and fads are born, and the current news is broadcast. Our culture is defined and passed on over meals in the dining hall.
According to Dufault (2013), the classes in most universities took 50-90 minutes long which is considerably longer than the attention span of an archetypal student. The attention of students widely differs from others and their attention quality relies on their emotion, the time of day and several other factors. It is believed that the attention span of students ends at the headmost 10-15 minutes of every lecture. But no corroboration was found to uphold the belief.
In America, many are not aware of the inequalities that exist in the Food Service. The food service sector has at least 125,951 companies and approximately 12 million employees with almost 7 million foreigners. This sector includes individually owned restaurants, mid-priced chains, quick service (fast food), hotels, and beverage establishments. Food service plays a major role in institutional establishments like schools, hospitals, prisons and meals on wheels. They cater to the tastes of their particular customers and are often leaders of food innovation. In the food service, we find: bartenders, wait staff, hosts, busboys, chefs, cooks, managers, and dishwashers .The food service workers perform a variety of customer service, food preparation and cleaning tasks, all that which are very important to keep a business running. More concerning , some of the major working conditions that foodservice workers face with daily is no health benefits and significantly low wages. These employees working in the food industry make it possible for millions of people to enjoy food in restaurants but are not being treated or appreciated fairly.