456 Part 4 Public Speaking
Tajfel believes that the groups to which we attach ourselves, both online
and off, help answer the very important question, Who am I? According
to Tajfel’s 1979 book The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, we as-
sociate with certain groups to help resolve the anxiety brought about by
this fundamental question of identity. By selecting certain groups and
not others, we define who we are and develop a sense of belonging in the
social world. •
Social media sites such as Facebook provide a platform for this type
of social identity formation by offering participants certain tools, such
as the ability to “friend” people, groups, and even brands, and to “like”
certain posts. The simple act of friending, for example, promotes social
affiliation between two individuals, and our Facebook friends are collec-
tively a source of social identity. Because we are proclaiming something
important to our groups, announcing that we are in a serious relation-
ship takes on great social significance. As we all know, it’s not official
until it’s “Facebook official.”
As you can see, social identity theory gives us insight into the rea-
sons behind the popularity of social media sites: They let us proclaim to
ourselves and the world, “This is who I am.” Even so, the near miracu-
lous rate of growth of these sites over the past decade is surprising.
According to Marcia Clemmit’s 2010
CQ Researcher article on social networking,
Facebook had over one million members in
2005—just one year after its launch. This
growth from zero to a million in one year
was quite an impressive feat. Today, accord-
ing to a May 2013 article on the number of
active Facebook users published by the Asso-
ciated Press, Facebook harbors over 1.16 bil-
lion members. • That’s almost four times the
population of the United States.
Like Facebook, Twitter’s growth has also been astronomical. Shea
Bennett, editor of the Mediabistro-sponsored blog AllTwitter, reports in
an October 2013 article that Twitter had 218 million active users at the
end of June 2013. Like Facebook, its success can be largely attributed to
the demand for virtual communities that enable users to connect with
one another.
As the data clearly show, people around
the world are defining themselves socially and
answering the question, “Who am I?” through
the use of social media sites. • And social
movement organizations have taken note. Or-
ganizations of all kinds are using social media
to get their messages across to global consum-
ers and spur their members into action.
Social movements, defined by Princeton.edu as “a group of people with
a common ideology who try together to achieve certain general goals,”
- This transition helps listeners
prepare for the next main point
of Anna’s speech.
- To help her audience un-
derstand the large numbers
she quotes, Anna relates the
number of Facebook users to
the population of the United
States, so the audience can get
a sense of just how big 1.16
billion people really is.
- The subtle repetition of the
question “Who am I?” relates
this main point back to the
speech thesis.
Anna explains the graph while
gesturing at the slides.
While making her point, Anna
uses strong eye contact.
