The Impact of Internet on Peer Group Identity

The Internet as a new kind of popular communicative medium is going to find its place in social interactions, and then has likely some implications for social identities in different levels. The paper reports the findings of first hand research carried out in the field of the Internet᾽s effects on peer group identity. Peer group identity measured by a scale which developed by author applying Tajfel's social identity theory. The research plan was a cross-sectional quasiexperimental one. In a non-probability sampling 365 students selected from University of Tehran to test the research hypothesis. The sample divided into two subgroups as the test group (n=180) for those who had some Internet experiences, and the observation group (n=185) for whom had not such an experience. The hypothesis tested by two techniques: Man-Whitney and multiple regressions. There was no significant relation between the Internet usage and peer group identity. The main result and two side findings are discussed. The latter findings includes "any significant relationship between gender type and peer group identity is not observed", and "there was a significant positive relation between the time which spent to use video cassette recording (VCR) system and peer group identity".