Facebook Really is a Materialistic World, New Research Asserts
According to new research published in Heliyon and given the rather lengthy title
of ‘Materialists on Facebook: the self-regulatory role of social comparisons and the objectification of Facebook friends’, those with a materialistic nature are likely to be far
more frequent and intense users of Facebook than those with a less
possession-orientated outlook. They also tend to have more online friends,
though they seem to view them in a less-than-ideal light.
By this I mean that rather than taking a healthy view of
said connections, materialistic people attempt to ‘collect’ Facebook friends as
a form of possession or validation, fuelled in part by a need to compare
themselves with others and compete.
“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!”
In order to reach this conclusion the research team gathered
a pool of 242 Facebook users via campus-wide emails, flyers and Facebook
invitations at Ruhr-University of Bochum, where the study was conducted. These
participants ranged from 17-52 years old with a ratio of 54 males to 188
females, though the biggest part of the sample was represented by people
between 17 and 28 years (90.1%), giving a mean age of 22.91 years.
Participants were then asked a series of questions in order
to first gather demographical data-sets containing information regarding age,
sex, highest degree of education, nationality, native language, relationship
status, and university course. These were followed up by 62 items relating to Facebook
use, social comparison orientation, materialism, and objectification and
instrumentalisation via Facebook. For example respondents were asked to indicate
how much they agree with statements such as “my life would be better if I owned
certain things I don’t have” and “having many Facebook friends contributes to
more success in my personal and professional life”, as reported by The Independent.
The team ultimately concluded that there is indeed an apparent
link between high levels of materialism and frequent/intense use of the
Facebook platform. Furthermore in a repeat of the experiment conducted with a
second sample of 289 Facebook users, the researchers ended up with the same
conclusion, which certainly adds to the validity of the findings.
Despite this Ozimek and his team are in no way suggesting
that Facebook use is a negative act in general, rather they are simply preaching
caution in the way we use it.
“It seems to us that Facebook is like a knife,” concluded
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.”
Sam
is an aspiring novelist with a passion for fantasy and crime thrillers.
Currently working as Editor of Social Songbird, he hopes to one day drop that
'aspiring' prefix. Follow him @Songbird_Sam
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Facebook Really is a Materialistic World, New Research Asserts
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Friday, November 24, 2017
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Reviewed by Unknown
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Friday, November 24, 2017
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