Role of Smartphone and Apps in Feeling Part of the Foodie Community

TIKTOK 

A large portion of those whom I've categorized as Foodies have Tik Tok, and many of these people note that restaurant recommendations come up on their For You Pages. This contributes to the community in two different ways. The first is that the TikTok app is creating a sense of online community around restaurants; people can comment on different recommendations and contribute to the online pool of recommendations themselves on this app. The people in the TikTok Foodie community thus exhibit habitus by exchanging their cultural capital of knowledge about places to eat. Second, as I mentioned earlier, many Foodies noted in their interviews that they used TikTok to find new places and exchange those findings with their friends. This exchange then builds a sense of Foodie community within their friend group.

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BLOGS

Many of the Foodies from the interviews talked about following bloggers and their recommendations on places to eat out; these blogs, due to the interactive nature of commenting and sharing them, leads them to be small online communities. One Foodie even talked about discussing bloggers with other Foodies, which is an exchange of cultural capital (a habitus that can be expected within the Foodie community). It seemed that this interviewee felt excited about these discussions; by speaking at length about food bloggers, this Foodie and her friends might feel more connected to the Foodie community.