Social identity is how an individual uses their role in a group to define who they are in life. They look at family roles, career roles, and friendship roles to identify who they are as a person. Some even use their role as a fan of a team to show who they are. When an individual relates strongly to a certain team, being a member of this group is essential. “For many people, sports fandom is an integral social identity component” (Sanderson, 2013, p. 489). Through social media, fans are divided by the in-group and out-group and act accordingly. When their in-group is attacked, their social identity is subsequently threatened. This can result in rallying, stigmatizing, victimization, intimidation, and degradation.
With social media, fans have the ability make
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“As social identity is strongly tied to group belonging, when social identity threats emerge, members feel vulnerable, and insecurity results leading to group members enhancing in-group favoritism and identification” (Sanderson, 2013, p. 492). Other strategies to combat identity threats include individual mobility, social creativity, and social competition. Individual mobility is when in-group members try to move to higher status groups. For sports fans, this could be identifying with a city team rather than a college team or being a fan for a better team because they are constantly winning. Social creativity, which is when a member finds a way to seek positive distinctiveness without changing their social position, could be seen in sports fans who compare individual players and say they have better stats