If you don't have a lot of friends on social media, it may mean that you are just a little less concerned with material possessions in your everyday life.

如果你在社交网站上的朋友不多，这可能意味着你对日常生活中的物质所有物并不十分在意。

According to a new study, materialistic¹ people tend to have a lot more Facebook friends than non-materialistic people, collecting them like they would physical objects. They also spend a lot more time on Facebook than non-materialistic people, and are more likely to compare their lives to the lives of others on the social network.

一项新研究发现，崇尚物质的人比非物质主义的人拥有更多的社交网朋友，共同的物质爱好将他们联系起来。他们在社交网络上花费的时间也比非物质主义的人多，也更愿意在社交网络上把他们的生活与其他人的生活相比较。

Phillip Ozimek of Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany, have created a new theory to explain why this occurs. They call it the Social Online Self-Regulation Theory.

德国鲁尔大学的研究者 Phillip Ozimek创立了一种新理论来解释这一现象发生的原因。他们将其称之为社交网络在线自我约束理论。

"Materialistic people use Facebook more frequently because they tend to objectify their Facebook friends - they acquire Facebook friends to increase their possessions," Ozimek said.

Ozimek称，“崇尚物质的人登录社交网络更为频繁的原因在于，他们会利用社交网络上的朋友实现自己的物质需求——他们在社交网上交朋友的目的就在于增加自己的物质所有物。”

"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!"

“社交网络提供了完美的平台可供人们相互攀比。这里有数以百万的档案和个人资料。而且都是免费的——物质主义者喜欢不花钱的工具！”

The authors conducted their research on 531 Facebook users, divided into two groups. The first group of 242 was a pilot study; the second aimed to replicate² the first group's results.

研究者对531名社交网用户进行了调查，将他们分为两组，第一组有242名成员，是一项前导性研究；第二组研究的目的是验证第一组研究的结果。

Both groups were given a Likert scale questionnaire to gauge³ how they use Facebook, how much they compare themselves to others, level of materialism⁴, how much they think of Facebook friends as objects, and how much status or other benefits they can gain from their Facebook friends.

两组受访者都被要求填写一份李克特量表问卷调查，旨在调查他们使用社交网络的方式，他们爱与同伴相互攀比的程度，他们崇尚物质的程度，在多大意义上将社交网络上的朋友视为一样物品，他们通过社交网络上的朋友能获得何种身份认同或其他益处。

Options included statements with which the participants had to agree or disagree, such as "I admire people who own expensive homes, cars, and clothes," "I often compare how I am doing socially," and "Having many Facebook friends contributes more success in my personal and professional life."

调查问卷中包括若干判断题，受访者需要选择自己同意或者否认那些描述，例如“我羡慕那些拥有豪宅，豪车，名贵衣服的人”，“我经常把自己的社交生活与他人相互比较”，“在社交网络上拥有许多朋友能让我的个人生活更充实，事业更加成功”。

They were also asked to supply the number of their Facebook friends.

受访者还要汇报自己在社交网站上的朋友的人数。

In both the pilot and the replication group, the team found a correlation⁵ between a high number of Facebook friends, objectification of those friends, time spent on Facebook, a propensity⁶ to compare oneself to others, and materialism .

在前导性研究组和后续研究组中，研究团队都发现了社交网络朋友多与物化这些朋友，在社交网络上花的时间，与他人相互攀比的倾向，物质崇拜几者之间的相互关联性。

Previous research in 2014 found that materialistic people were more likely to "Like" brand pages, concluding that the biggest fans of a brand were the most materialistic - and that interacting with brand pages on Facebook was partially⁷ about display.

先前一项2014年的研究发现物质主义的人更倾向于在品牌主页上点赞，同时某一品牌的忠实粉丝也是最崇尚物质的——在社交网上与某品牌主义互动很大程度上是为了晒自己的所有物。

Friends are not the same as brands, but public image may still have something to do with it. As noted⁸ in a 1994 paper, materialism is strongly associated with items that can be displayed publicly.

朋友与名牌不是一回事，但是仍然与公众形象相关。1994年的一篇报刊文章曾说过，物质主义与能公开展示的所有物有着深刻的关联性。

The researchers were careful to stress that there is nothing inherently wrong or bad about the way materialistic people use social networking. On the contrary, they said, this is just how some people achieve their goals and have fun.

研究者们谨慎的强调，崇尚物质的人利用社交网络的方式并没有本质上的对错可言。恰恰相反，他们指出，这就是一些人实现目标，娱乐消遣的方式。

"Social media platforms are not that different from other activities in life - they are functional⁹ tools for people who want to attain¹⁰ goals in life, and some might have negative consequences for them or society," Ozimek said.

“社交网络平台和生活中的其他活动并没有什么区别——对那些想要实现生活目标的人来说它们是实用性的工具，有些社交网络平台可能会对用户或者社会产生负面影响。”