References:
All The Lonely Diners: Percentage of occasions when Americans eat alone[chart depicting the percentage of americans of who eat alone for each meal of the day.]. 2014. The NPD Group. [accessed2022 October 17]. https://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedia/2014/08/18/Photos/ZG/MW-CQ893_lonely_20140818121125_ZG.jpg?uuid=5a0eecd8-26f2-11 e4-b458-00212804637c
Presentation Script:
Preface:
Arriving at college as a first year can be extremely difficult to settle in. The unfamiliar places, faces, and societal norms can overwhelm students easily. For the majority of students, High school lunchtime consisted of an allotted time, usually 30-45 minutes at the same time every day, with a general area students are recommended to sit and speak to their peers. Through my first weeks at UNC, I noticed a remarkable amount of students that dine alone given these new eating environments and I wanted to figure out what drives someone to choose to sit alone or with others during meal time. My diagnosis to this question will be based upon my observation and interactions within The Agora, the freshman dining hall in Granville Towers.
Background Information:
But before I reveal what answers I found to my research question I’d like to refer to a source titled Alone or With Others? Understanding Eating Episodes of College Students with Mobile Sensing (Meegahapola et. al 2020). This source observed the body language and interactions between diners who ate with others vs those who ate alone. This relates much to my work as the majority of my observations were through watching the body language of students in The Agora. By using mobile sensing features they were able to quantify these so-called episodes and compare the amount of fidgeting, conversation and food consumed across the different types of meal conditions. I specifically liked including this source because it outlined many of the behaviors that those who eat together display and could be reasoning as to why someone might want to sit with their peers or reasoning as to why not. For example, someone who knows sitting with a larger group will lead to increased distraction and fidgeting who also happens to be in a time crunch might choose to sit alone.
Observation and Analysis:
During my time conducting observations of the Agora I picked up many things I had not recognized before. The most pertinent of my observations which included a rather important interview surrounding why students in The Agora choose to sit alone or with others. I interviewed (with their permission) a group of guys that consisted of four freshmen living in Granville Towers. They revealed information about how depending on the day, their decision to sit alone or with others may vary. Oftentimes on days where they weren’t feeling a hundred percent or in need of alone time may result in secluded meal time. However for the majority of the days the boys indicated they chose to sit with others because of the friendship they had created with one another through rush (joined a greek life organization at UNC). By eating with one another they were able to collectively talk about what had been affecting mental health as a way of communal therapy in a sense.
Conclusion:
This specifically led me to the conclusion that By relating to one another while sitting together it removed the factor of feeling alone in one’s struggles while attending a University with such a challenging curriculum and on the same note by eating alone one can enter a calm state in which they can recharge their social battery in a sense in preparation for the day ahead. I thought I would learn more about why people choose to eat alone but the more I observed I learned that I often overlook the benefits and reasoning behind why I love to eat with others. Specifically the psychological impact that eating with others has on one’s life were astounding in ways I had never thought of previous to this assignment.
Explication of Research:
Preface:
Arriving at college as a first year can be extremely difficult to settle in. The unfamiliar places, faces, and societal norms can overwhelm students easily. Figuring out what the typical college student does on a day-to-day basis can take time, and each person coming into school had a different routine going about their day than they do now. One of the most essential parts of the day, mealtime, has a drastically different schedule than many first-year students had previously been accustomed to. High school lunchtime consists of an allotted time, usually 30-45 minutes at the same time every day, with a general area students are recommended to sit and speak to their peers. However, in college, these roles have been entirely reversed. Students all over campus have access to multiple areas to purchase food, and all of these respective dining halls are open the majority of the day for students to come and go as they please. The most intriguing part of this whole process is the new social norms that are produced within these dining halls as a result of these hours and policies presented by the university. As a prior High School student and now a current first year at UNC, I was shocked at the differences in how students chose to spend their mealtimes in college as compared to when I attended High School; it seemed like an entirely different world. The biggest difference and the reasoning behind why I am interested in this topic is why people choose to sit alone or with others during meal time, Specifically in the freshman dining hall, The Agora, in Granville Towers.
Background Information:
Meal time across the entirety of the human race has meant more than sitting and consuming food for the purpose of energy used to carry out bodily functions. The choices one makes when eating concerning things such as what one chooses to eat, where one chooses to eat, and who one chooses to eat with can affect the big picture of one’s life in many ways. Through the use of various scholarly sources the research question at hand can not only be answered effectively from one perspective, but from many perspectives. Evidence from sources like The Nutrition Journal offer statistics regarding the health choices one makes when eating in groups versus when eating alone. By tracking and observing solitary vs communal diners this source was able to identify how people who eat alone typically make unhealthy food selections. However, the sources that I feel are most pertinent to this research question specifically touch upon why those who eat at universities in Mexico and Switzerland choose to eat alone or with others. This specific journal entry, Alone or With Others? Understanding Eating Episodes of College Students with Mobile Sensing, bases much of its findings on physical gestures and body language (referred to as episodes in this specific article) much like I did throughout my preliminary observations of The Agora. By using mobile sensing features they were able to quantify these so-called episodes and compare the amount of fidgeting, conversation and food consumed across the different types of meal conditions. By observing individuals eating alone, with friends and with strangers they were able to, for their sake of the experiment, verify that their usage of mobile sensing was an accurate way to measure these episodes; as well as aid in my own research in proving the behaviors surrounding dining vary depending on if you sit with others and the relation you have to said people you surround yourself with.
Observation and Analysis:
During my time conducting observations of the Agora I picked up many things I had not recognized before. My first observation was heavily focused on students waiting in line and the interactions they had while waiting which mainly just consisted of standing silently on their phones or speaking with a friend briefly. However my second observation which included a rather important interview surrounding why students in The Agora choose to sit alone or with others. This experience was extremely useful in coming to a conclusion about my research question as it confirmed my previous assumptions and opened my eyes to new reasoning as to why someone might sit alone or with others while eating. The group of guys I interviewed, consisting of four freshmen living in Granville Towers, were enjoying lunch when I asked them for permission to interview/ask them questions pertaining to my assignment for ENGL 105. They revealed information about how depending on the day, their decision to sit alone or with others may vary. Oftentimes on days where they weren’t feeling a hundred percent or in need of alone time may result in secluded meal time. However for the majority of the days the boys indicated they chose to sit with others because of the friendship they had created with one another through rush (joined a greek life organization at UNC). However the most pertinent revelation from these individuals was the information they released to me about how when they eat with one another they can unpack the stress and uncertainty of the week ahead. By eating with one another they were able to collectively talk about what had been affecting mental health as a way of communal therapy in a sense. By relating to one another it removed the factor of feeling alone in one’s struggles while attending a University with such a challenging curriculum.
Conclusion:
As someone who enjoys meals out with family and friends I was super interested in the reasoning behind why someone might sit alone during meal time. And I honestly was expecting to learn more about the reasoning behind sitting alone as opposed to others since I considered myself a social eater. But the more I observed I learned that I often overlook the benefits and reasoning behind why I love to eat with others. Specifically the psychological impact that eating with others has on one’s life were astounding in ways I had never thought of previous to this assignment. I personally believe my research question was open-ended enough that it covered the majority of the observations I made; however, I wish I had refocused it on the psychological effects that eating with others vs alone does to the body. However, this would have been hard to quantify given I only conducted two observations and basing psychological evaluations on short interviews with college students is most likely illegal in some sense as well as illegitimate. Although this research question seems more interesting I dont think its as viable as the research question I presented in this assignment. Personally I wish I could have spoken to a psychologist that focused in the field of relations among meal time. That would have provided me with concrete theories and evidence from the field of psychology which would have strengthened my answer to the research question as a whole. Although I feel the conclusions I came to based on what I observed and gained through interviews are sufficient with the Unit assignment and overall I feel confident in my work.
References:
Chae, W., Yeong, J. J., Shin, J., Jang, S., & Park, E. (2018). Association between eating behavior
and diet quality: Eating alone vs. eating with others. Nutrition Journal, 17 (1-11) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-018-0424-0
Hetherington, M., Anderson, A., Norton, G., & Newson, L.
(2006). Situational effects on meal intake: A comparison of eating alone
and eating with others. Physiology & Behavior, 88(4-5), 498–505.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.04.025
Meegahapola, L., Ruiz-Correa, S., & Gatica-Perez, D. (2020). Alone or with others?
Understanding eating episodes of college students with mobile sensing. 19th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia. https://doi.org/10.1145/3428361.3428463
Sloat, S. (2019). There’s a study-backed argument for eaating alone. Inverse. Retrieved
September 28, 2022, from https://www.inverse.com/article/53320-eating-alone-is-not-lonely
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Google Images, Creative Commons License