Sociological Analysis of Food-delivery Services
Digital Sociology (HSS106), Spring 2019 at IIIT-B
02 Feb 2019The instant the hunger-clock in my body strikes I see myself reaching for my phone, opening multiple instances of such food-delivery applications and drooling over the deceiving images being portrayed in a linear fashion.
In the blink of an eye, I then spot myself with my debit card in the other hand, paying for the food I ordered and expecting it to turn up on my door in the next 16 minutes! I hope this whole picture makes one realise the impact of such applications - psychologically, physiologically and even sociologically - on our daily lives. The objective of this article is to emphasise on the sociological influences caused by food-delivery applications like Zomato, Food Panda, Swiggy, UberEats, etc. using tools of Sociological Imagination [1] and Sociological Consciousness [2].
Sociological Imagination enables to place oneself outside of everyday routines and be able to view one’s actions or life from a third-party perspective. It is the intersection between biography and history. Going forward is my response to the three crucial questions one needs to ask when viewing from the lens of Sociological Imagination.
What are the societal structures that brought this drastic switch to food-delivery options? How has the fabric of society changed from its primitive form?
As summarised in this Forbes’ article, people are turning into “time-starved, convenience-seeking consumers” [3]. We, humans, are always on the run. This fast-paced way of living has crept into all parts of our lives. We need everything to be quick, smooth and convenient. Everything should be just away from the click of a button.
Another thread in the fabric of the society that has changed is the rise in women workforce [4] [5], hereby forcing the ones dependant on them to order-in. This raises a Sociological Consciousness [2] question as well - why are only women required to cook in the house? Why is it considered “normal”?
A tiny but significant factor could also be brought by, at least in India, is the western influence, according to me. People, inspired by the movies and TV Series, tend to order “western” food which usually won’t be cooked in their own kitchen.
What are the factors which contributed to popularising this digital technology in this timeline? What are the characteristics of such sociological factors which weren’t present in history?
With the surge in real estate prices [6], people are more inclined towards investing in the food-delivery industry [5] [7] as you don’t need as much space to dine as before.
The growth in the production of smartphones to cater to demanding consumers is yet another factor paving the way to success for this digital technology.
With more people now connected to the internet and the whole technology being easily accessible [8], it’s quite apparent as to why food-delivery services have achieved so much success in this timeline of our history.
Who are the people who’re ordering food? Who are the delivery staff? Where do they locate themselves in the map of the society?
According to this Forbes’ article [3] and this article by AIMS [5], “the millennials are most likely to order than their parents“. Taking into account my limited knowledge (including what I see daily in my hostel), the number of hostellers ordering in daily is also a substantial amount. Couples where both the individuals work, points in the same direction as well. The delivery staff, to the extent I see on their Zomato bio, are usually 12th graduates or even underqualified. With no data to back me up (limited to my extensive search results) on identifying the social location of such people, I wasn’t able to lay any concrete analysis.
One who possesses the sociological conscious mind [2] would also question the state of the delivery staff which is male-dominated [9]. Is this also a case of ‘Social Relativism’ [10]? A lady staff delivering my food would be completely normal to me but on the other hand, it might raise the eyebrows of numerous people.
References
[1] Mills, C. Wright. 1959. The sociological imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
[2] Berger, Peter L. 1963. Invitation to sociology; a humanistic perspective. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
[3] Millennials Are Ordering More Food Delivery, 26 Jun. 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2018/06/26/millennials-are-ordering-food-for-delivery-more-but-are-they-killing-the-kitchen-too/.
[4] Key facts and trends in female labor force participation. 16 Oct. 2017, https://ourworldindata.org/female-labor-force-participation-key-facts.
[5] Online Food Service in India: An Analysis, AIMS Institutes, Bangalore. https://theaims.ac.in/resources/online-food-service-in-india-an-analysis.html.
[6] IMF Global Housing Watch. https://www.imf.org/external/research/housing/.
[7] The popularity of India’s food-delivery apps - Scroll.in, 28 Nov. 2018, https://scroll.in/article/903509/the-popularity-of-indias-food-delivery-apps-is-making-indias-restaurants-think-differently.
[8] Individuals using the Internet, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.ZS.
[9] Chart: The percentage of women and men in each profession, 7 Mar. 2017, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/06/chart-the-percentage-women-and-men-each-profession/GBX22YsWl0XaeHghwXfE4H/story.html.
[10] Social relativism - Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/social-relativism/v-1.