Bitwise operators manipulate bit patterns in useful ways. The bitwise AND &, OR |, and XOR ^ operators compare the two operands bit by bit. The bitwise shifting operators shift all of the bits of the first operand left or right. The bitwise complement changes each bit in a bit pattern to its opposite bit value.
Each bit in a bit field (8, 16, or 32 bits) could be used as if it was a switch, or flag, determining whether some feature or characteristic of the program was off (0) or on (1). The main drawback of using bit fields in this manner is that the meaning of the bit positions can only be known by reading the source code, assuming that the proper source code is both available and well commented!
Bitwise operations are less valuable today, not only because memory and CPU registers are cheap and plentiful, but because they are now expensive operations computationally. They do, occasionally, find a useful place in some programs, but not often...