Individuals adjust their behavior on social media to varying extent, and commonly in their idealized way. Most studies have focused on the problems associated with materialism and social media use, yet their potential positive contributions remain less clear. In fact, impression management holds potential for both negative and positive: it has been linked with materialistic attitudes, but also increased amounts of self-reported social capital. This study examines how young people's materialistic values connect with status-seeking impression management on social media, and subsequently to social capital, within the same model. Eight hundred Finnish participants aged 15–19 participated in our structured phone survey. We applied structural equation modeling to examine the connections between materialism, impression management, and online social capital. Our findings show that materialism is positively related to impression management, while impression management is positively associated with online social capital. Additionally, we found positive indirect effects between materialism and both bridging and bonding social capital through impression management. In sum, more materialistic young people who engaged in higher impression management had higher amounts of social capital.

个人在不同程度上调整他们在社交媒体上的行为，通常是以他们理想化的方式。大多数研究都集中在与唯物主义和社交媒体使用相关的问题上，但它们潜在的积极贡献仍然不太清楚。事实上，印象管理具有消极和积极的潜力：它与物质主义态度有关，但也增加了自我报告的社会资本。本研究探讨了年轻人的物质主义价值观如何在同一模型中与社交媒体上寻求地位的印象管理以及随后与社会资本相关联。800 名 15-19 岁的芬兰参与者参加了我们的结构化电话调查。我们应用结构方程模型来检验唯物主义、印象管理、和在线社交资本。我们的研究结果表明，唯物主义与印象管理正相关，而印象管理与在线社会资本正相关。此外，我们发现了唯物主义与通过印象管理桥接和结合社会资本之间的积极间接影响。总而言之，从事更高印象管理的更物质主义的年轻人拥有更高的社会资本。