I HAVE, I POST, THEREFORE I AM! HEDONIC CONSUMPTION AS A TOOL FOR SELF-PROMOTING BEHAVIOR ON SOCIAL NETWORKING PLATFORMS

Meda MUCUNDORFEANU; Cora LUPAȘ

doi:10.24193/subbeph.2018.2.04

Authors

Meda MUCUNDORFEANU Lecturer PhD, Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.Email: mucundorfeanu@fspac.ro. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8842-9551
Cora LUPAȘ Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: coralupas@gmail.com.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbeph.2018.2.04

Keywords:

Social Networking Sites, self-promotion, self-representation, hedonic acquisitions, social comparison

Abstract

Research shows that people often associate themselves with material objects or places and use them to gain a certain validating status from others. (Millan and Mittal, 2017:2, Thompson and Hirschman 1995:151, Schau and Gilly, 2003:1-5). Individuals often find themselves engaged in social comparison and self-presentation behaviors in order to fit in and gain recognition. The present paper takes a closer look at the ways the rise of social media is affecting these behaviors. The main aim of our research is to find out whether there is a link between hedonic acquisitions and self-promoting on SNS. Our hypothesis, that individuals who practice self-promotion on social networking platforms are more likely to make hedonic acquisitions than those who use social media for other gratifications, has been confirmed to a certain extent.

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