Broadcast Yourself: An Exploratory Study of Sharing Physical Activity on Social Networking Sites
This article focuses on the practice of self-tracking of physical activity data and sharing it via social networking sites. The use of wearable technology devices and the latest smartphones with built-in GPS tracking technology – capturing the speed, distance and duration of physical activities such as running and cycling – is a striking example of the trend towards quantifying sports performances. The study explores the determinants and motivations of recreational athletes to share physical activity status updates on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. Evidence is drawn from a large-scale survey of 400 users of Strava, a popular fitness app and online community. The results suggest that intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivations determine a person's willingness to share physical activity via social networking sites.