To what extent does the web form social identity.

In the era of intense social media, where people distribute their thoughts in 140 characters, and emoticons. A service like twitter, has not only allowed regular, average Joe's, like myself to interact with celebrities, or sports figures, it also detracts from said celebrities privacy.

With celebrities differing from lower league footballer, to "leader of the free-world", twitter has transcended the way we discuss and converse the goings-on in our own life, sharing public conversations on the net, for all people to read, and even join in.

Even websites like youtube, and a variety of blogs have a comments section, a section which is often fuelled with hatred, especially i've noted when it comes to sport, where rival supporters systematically insult and demean the other, the majority in anonymity.

This is an example of sticking to a social group, or alligning yourself with people similar. For example, as an avid supporter of Oxford United, if given the option to socialise with another set of people who share this support, or a group that follow a rival team, I would allign with people of my own ilk.

This view is supported in "This classic social experiment", where young boys were instructed to select one of two paintings they prefer. Experiment leader Henry Tajfel thought "it seemed impossible that people stood together for only 30 seconds can be said to form a group in any measurable way".

The experiment saw two groups split, one which preferred each individual painting,

When labels are branded so easily, and carelessly, when you can be dubbed a chav, an emo, a goth or a prep without having many common traits to either clique. It seems in a contemporary society every person needs to be grouped to maintain a social order.

According to Mooney, Knox and Schacht 2000, a social group is "two or more people who have a common identity, interact and form a social relationship. Would this mean Adolf Hitler and Benoit Mussolini would be a social group. They both shared a belief in fascism?

Social idnetity is a situation which is locked full of stereotypes and cliched thinking, the web has only helped to excacerbate these, with new volumes to air out uneducated, unnecessary words or phrases to group, and reduce people to a certain number of people they could be associated with.