It's not without reason that materialistic people are believed to have significantly more buddies on Facebook compared to less money-oriented people who put less interest in possessions and other materialistic things. In the sense, Facebook helps ambitious people not only to chase money on the social platform but use it as a means to earn more, says a study.
Published in the journal Heliyon, the study explained that those with consumer mindset tend to have more Facebook friends than others, for they regard them as "their digital objects" for the progression of their wealth. The study further revealed that money-oriented people use Facebook to reach their potential target and also make maximum use of the platform to make money.
"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 from Ruhr- University Bochum in Germany.
The wealthy people understand that Facebook is an impeccable social platform to exhibit their possession and other worldly materials, said the study.
"Facebook provides the ideal platform for social comparisons, with millions of diverse profiles and information about people of different classes. And it's free-materialists love tools that do not cost money," said Ozimek .
To show the findings, the team of researchers conducted an online questionnaire among 242 constant Facebook users. The results showed that link between materialism and Facebook activity could be explained by materialists portraying more bountiful social comparison, socializing with more Facebook friends, and approaching Facebook friends mainly as an instrument to attract them more intensely.
The team replicated the approach with 289 Facebook users from the different angle, yet they come to the same conclusion as above. They found no close difference between these two groups of Facebook users.
"Social media platforms are not that different from other activities in life -- they are functional tools for people who want to attain goals in life, and some might have negative consequences for them or society," said Ozimrk.
Facebook is the most popular social platform for money-oriented people to transform their goal to become wealthy and financially successful, added researchers.
