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Davey Crouch; Frances Laughlin; and Tres Key
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Introduction
Beyond their primary purpose of supplying food and drinks for consumption, restaurants provide a location for people to meet their need for human connection and developing social relationships (Feldman, 2015). This is especially true for the demographic of College Students. Bars and restaurants are valuable resources for a college student to form and develop social connections. Without them, the social network available to students shrinks significantly. The chapter aims to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on restaurants and their student community at Clemson University. COVID-19 has forced restaurants to utilize and develop technology to keep their workers and clientele safe. Some of these methods include ordering through digital apps or websites and socially distanced on-site options. The restaurant industry’s flexibility and willingness to integrate technology into its daily operations has allowed society to slowly regain one of its most important social outlets. This is a clear example of how the relationship between science and technology and society is present within the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Connection to STS Theory
To make a profit during the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants had to rely on take-out orders. Rather than walk-in orders or call-ins, many restaurants chose to use apps or websites to collect orders. Also, the use of apps and websites to check seating capacities and reservations have been adopted by restaurants due to COVID-19. This is a very modern approach and way of thinking since apps, websites, and new on-site protocols were used less frequently before COVID-19. These advancements being selected over traditional communication methods are an excellent application of the modernization theory. The modernization theory dictates that “societies develop in fairly predictable stages through which they become increasingly complex. Development depends primarily on the importation of technology as well as a number of other political and social changes believed to come about as a result” (Crossman,2019). Clemson restaurants used widely available technology to develop their ordering and communication procedures due to the social change driven by COVID-19.
Detrimental Effects COVID-19 Has Had on Restaurants
The figures below contain information about the behavior of Clemson students when it came to eating out at restaurants before and during the pandemic. As you can see, the frequency with which these students attended restaurants decreased steadily, with the “once-a-week” option shrinking from 41.7% pre-pandemic to 29.2% during the pandemic. The “twice a week” and “3 times a week or more” options also shrunk noticeably. The most significant growth was seen in the “once every other week” category, with an increase of 37.5%. This data tells us that the pandemic affected students’ habits and s