A Social Identity Theory of Digital Identity

Abstract

People increasingly live their lives online, which means that their identities are increasingly constituted by and displayed through their activities on digital platforms. Existing theorizing about the psychology of digital identity has emphasized the social roles that people perceive and aim to verify online. These accounts can explain how digital identities are shaped by the social environment but not how they come together to create social life online. Moreover, there are unique features of digital identities, imposed by the digital platforms on which they are enacted, that cannot be accounted for by existing theories of offline social identity. To address these limitations, in the current article we propose a social digital identity theory that outlines how a person’s digital identity is shaped by their online and offline group memberships, as well as the implications of this psychological process for the well-being and performance of both individuals and groups. In outlining this theory, we aim to extend theorizing around social identity and digital identity by integrating these fields within a framework that recognizes and helps us better understand the merging of online and offline life.