And finally…materialistic people have more Facebook friends

The study carried out by the Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany, found that materialistic people view Facebook friends as “digital objects” and subsequently use the platform more intensely and more frequently.

The study, published in Heliyon, also found that materialists have a greater need to compare themselves to others on other social media platforms.

The scientists said materialistic people use Facebook to feel good and achieve their goals and the team even coined a new conceptual term for this: The Social Online Self-Regulation Theory.

For materialistic people, it’s about monitoring how far away they are from becoming wealthy, the researchers claim, and the theory is used to explain that people use social media as a tool to monitor and achieve their goals.

“Materialistic people use Facebook more frequently because they tend to objectify their Facebook friends - they acquire Facebook friends to increase their possession,” said lead author Phillip Ozimek.

“Facebook provides the perfect platform for social comparisons, with millions of profiles and information about people. And it’s free - materialists love tools that do not cost money!”

Ozimek and his team of researchers gathered their data through an online questionnaire carried out on 242 Facebook users.

Participants were asked to state how much they agreed with a series of statements that reflected their activity levels on the platform and their levels of materialism.

Statements, which the participants had to rate, included “I’m posting photographs”, “My life would be better if I owned certain things I don’t have”, “To what extent do you think Facebook friends are useful in order to attain your goals?” and “I often compare how I am doing socially”, were part of the questionnaire.

They found that there were strong links between high levels of materialism and intense Facebook activity.

When the process was repeated on a second sample of 289 Facebook users, the researchers drew the same conclusion.

“It seems to us that Facebook is like a knife,” added Ozimek.

“It can be used for preparing yummy food or it can be used for hurting a person. In a way, our model provides a more neutral perspective on social media.”