Is std::cout a function?

Question

If so, then what does "<<" mean and does it have any uses in other connotations?

Answer 1

cout is an object of std class. It is a console output which, suprisingly, spit things out to console. << is overloaded for cout purpose to "put" a string of bits into the console output.
<< can also be used as a bit shift operator, in that case, left shift. for example:
a = 1;
a = a << 1;
// shifting a by two bits to the left
a bits are shifted to the left with result of a holding a value of 2

Answer 2

Shift operators are often used with microcontrollers to set a given bit to a value, for example in Atmega8 to enable a timer. It is done by sending a byte of data like 00001000, so the 4th bit will be enabled. It looks somewhat like this:
TCCR0 I = 1 << 3;
where | is a bitwise OR

Answer 3

Thanks