Abstract:

Social identity is the individual’s knowledge that he belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to him of this group membership. Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have gradually penetrated into people's daily life. Previous studies showed that SNSs had changed the traditional environment of social identity, which is mainly reflected in five aspects: extend personal relationship networks, improving information exchange, providing a new presentation platform, giving people more privacy choices. SNSs play a vital role in the construction, expression, management, reconstruction of social identity. Further, SNSs may help the individual to create a sense of belonging. More attention should be paid to the research methods, research contents, and practical applications in this area.

Key words: social identity, social networking sites, sense of belonging