ABSTRACT
There is a plethora of publications emerging in the humanities, especially media studies, that use data points from social media platforms in order to investigate social interaction and cultural production. Data points taken from social media platforms are used for calculating metrics on the most diverse aspects of users and use. As Carolin Gerlitz has pointed out, research practices tend to treat these data points alike in spite of the fact that they take on different functions (Gerlitz & Rieder 2013) and even though they are used by different social groups (Bruns & Stieglitz 2013). Drawing on Espeland & Stevens (1998), Gerlitz calls this the commensuration of data points and formulates a data point critique.
