Social media-fication in the apposphere: Hyperdatafication and the repackaging of personal data

In today’s digital landscape, platforms increasingly “feel like” social media. We observe the “social media-fication” of so-called “non-social media” platforms as expressive characteristics of traditional social media platforms are incorporated into mobile apps typically used for other purposes. We argue that this manifests through the repackaging of user behavioral data into expressive social updates, such as GPS maps capturing user movement or the personalized data visualizations of Spotify Wrapped. To examine this phenomenon, we completed platform walkthroughs for three apps: fitness tracking app Strava, payment app Venmo, and music streaming app Spotify. We theorize the concentration and intensification of datafication as a process that we term hyperdatafication. Hyperdatafication emerges through the repurposing of “backend” user data into socially mobilizable data representations, which encourage and further platform engagement within the sociotechnical landscape of affective capitalism. Ultimately, this study raises questions about self-tracking, commodification, and platformed sociality beyond social media.