Numerical Representations and User Behaviour in Social Networking Sites: Towards a Multi- Theoretical Research Framework

Abstract

The new technological enhancements and the accessibility to varieties of online applications, enable users to collect personal data and perform self-evaluation through test, comparison and experimentation. The sparked interest in numbers and numbers as self-representative visualisations is prominent in social networking sites, which are the empirical setting for the present study. This paper sets out to establish a multi-theoretical framework which enables the investigation of emerging phenomena of the role of numbers in social networking sites. The proposed framework rests on three theoretical pillars: self-determination theory, heuristic decision making and behavioural economics. A discussion departs from these convictions to investigate user reactions and behaviour when faced with numerical representations in the SNS.