Emotional Compensation Through "Cloud Dining": A Comparative Study of the Viewing Motivations for Food Videos among College Students under Different Life Circumstances
Abstract
In the context of the continuous development of online short videos, almost all platforms have increasingly begun to encourage users to record their own lives by taking microfilms and, in doing so, to become professional content producers. Food videos have been seen as an indispensable part of the short video field. Drawing on the framework of the uses and gratifications theory, this paper uses the questionnaire method in order to explore the reasons why a large number of college students choose to watch food videos. The findings confirm that the group's preference for different types of food videos is rooted in their different real-life situations, and that watching such videos serves to complement their emotional needs in meaningful ways. On this basis, this paper puts forward development suggestions for short video platforms and bloggers, suggesting that they enrich video content types and allocate resources more precisely according to viewing preferences, thereby achieving a win-win situation for platforms, creators, and viewers.
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