Social Media in Higher Education: Friend or Foe?

Published 21 May 2025

Please click on and watch the video "EdTech Monday: The Impact of Social Media on Education and Learning" by CNBC Africa that inspired this journal post prior to continuing to read my weekly blog entry.

Thank You for watching the video! I know it's one of the long ones! As you read this blog post, I would like you to think about these questions: What place should social media occupy in your college or university? Should social media be permitted or encouraged in the classroom as an instructional aid? Should teachers use social media for collaborative lessons and group projects? Or should social media be excommunicated and restricted to the quad, cafeteria, and dormitory? What can we learn from the International University of Africa students' and professor's discussion about the impact of social media on education and learning in the video above?

Let us dive right in and look at the benefits and challenges of using social media in a higher education setting. In the beginning of the video, the USIU students, Martin and Corine, speak overwhelmingly in support of social media and outline many benefits that various social media brought to them. "Social media is the best thing that happened to me. It is tremendous," says Martin as he proceeds to talk about how social media allows him to form connections with other students and professional mentors, share ideas and collaborate with his teammates, and helps him prepare for the workforce. "Social media has really changed my life. It connects me to other people I cannot meet physically," says Corine. Dr Collins, a professor at USIU, remarks, "Communication has become very easy for students and colleagues. Social media gets us closer with each other." (CNBC Africa, 2024)

Indeed. Martin, Corine, and Dr. Collins are not alone in singing praises to social media in higher education and evidence-based academic research literature tends to support their views. The authors of "Social Media for Tertiary Education" book chapter say the following:

If students are spending 3 hours a day on social media, then educators should consider reshaping their pedagogical practices and approaches to reach out to them via social media. Due to the significance of tertiary education or higher education in societies globally, and the amount of time students spend on social media, this nexus deserves attention, particularly with a view to seeing how social media can be used in tertiary education. Social media provides pedagogical, social, and technological benefits and has the potential to be widely utilized in higher education (Chugh and Ruhi 2018). (Chugh & Ruhi, 2019, p.1)

Another academic research article says this:

Our results clearly showed that students are early adopters of social media and are both emotionally and technically ready to use social media in their learning purposes. Therefore, teachers should start experimenting with creating social media activities for learning purposes. One potential way could be to actively involve students in the planning and creation of tasks in order to acquaint them with the overall process. (Lampropoulos et al., 2021, p.391)

And another quote by the same authors says the following:

According to Tables 4 and 5, both students and teachers regarded YouTube, Google docs, forums, blogs and Facebook platforms as the most important for education. Furthermore, based on the results of this study, the majority of both students and teachers considered the use of social media to be both important and urgent. Particularly, 67% of the students believed that using social media is both urgent and important while the equivalent percentage for teachers was 55% (Siakas et al., 2014). (Lampropoulos et al., 2021, p.381)

Based on the video by CNBC Africa and academic literature, it is clear to me that higher education students regularly use social media for education, that they think the use of social media in and for education is important, and also that they are ready and prepared to utilize social media in educational settings for learning purposes. (CNBC Africa, 2024)

However, the question remains whether incorporating social media in colleges and universities is a worthwhile pursuit. Is it worth the potential headache and the effort? What are the benefits and drawbacks of social media in higher education settings? Since evidence-based academic research is one of my passions, let us review what the scientific research says about the use of social media in the higher education environments and see if this research can shed some light on social media advantages and disadvantages. First, regardless of what you and I may think, studies show that there are numerous benefits to using social media in academic tertiary settings. Some benefits of using these tools include increased student creativity, engagement, interaction, collaboration, communication, and connection. As the authors of A 10-year Longitudinal Study of Social Media Use in Education article state:

By summing up the main findings of our studies over the last decade as well as those of other related studies, we came to the conclusion that when there is proper infrastructure, appropriate strategies are applied, security and privacy are of high priority and teachers are well informed and become accustomed to using modern technologies, social media can be used as an effective educational tool which improves the overall educational process and learning outcomes. Specifically, by using social media in a creative and student-centered manner in educational settings, students' engagement, motivation, interactivity, soft skills, communication and collaboration are promoted and improved. Finally, social media can be used as a means to help create virtual communities in which students will be able to exchange ideas, opinions and knowledge in both academic and extracurricular environments, mature and flourish. (Lampropoulos et al., 2021, p.394)

And in another article authors summarize the many positive uses of social media in education in these two quotes:

Essentially, education is a social process, and social media enables the process further by allowing students and teachers to interact, engage, and learn without worrying about geographic distance. Social media is also about staying connected. Having continuous access to online classes and staying connected to lecturers, tutors, and peers facilitates access to information when needed even when the students are away from traditional classrooms. Teachers use social media platforms with the aim of facilitating the learning process. Social media increases student collaboration and interactivity and enhances interaction between students and teachers (Sugimoto et al. 2015). (Chugh & Ruhi, 2019, p.2)

The value of social media usage in tertiary education not only lies in making announcements, marketing, and advertising but also for learning and teaching purposes. Social media can be implemented for pedagogical activities. It has the potential to improve academic performance, enhance interaction and collaboration, increase communication between teachers and peers, provide convenient access to teaching and learning content, and build relationships. Chugh & Ruhi, 2019, p.5)

Despite its' ability to enhance learning, social media use in education brings potential downsides that students and educators must navigate. There were many challenges and worries expressed by the students and the professor in the CNBC Africa video above, notably, many students say that they use social media non-stop for many hours each day, with some students using social media for more than eight hours every day! Dr. Collins further observes that social media distraction and cyberbullying presents a big problem for the university and Corine remarks that persistent social media notifications make her consistently lose focus. Additionally, Martin indicates that, although classes taught via social media present a viable alternative in an emergency, they are a poor replacement for in-person lectures. Grace, an International Relations student at USIU, says, "There is a duality to social media," her statement pointing to the fact that social media has as many disadvantages as it does advantages. (CNBC Africa, 2024)

As per the academic literature, these are some of the concerns students expressed regarding the use of social media in education:

• Group competition: They feel pressure and competition in a group activity.
• Security and safety: The safety in social media (data protection).
• Compatibility of social media platforms: They consider that many new platforms are frequently developed which may not be compatible with the earlier ones. Moreover, the platforms may have different features which are not always better than those already being used.
• Trust, fake news, quality of content: Since the content is co-created, they do not feel sure about the quality and validity of content, especially if the group that has created the content is small. (Lampropoulos et al., 2021, p.380)

One of the largest barriers to the use of social media as an educational and learning medium is the college faculty. Consider this article quote:

A study by Moran et al. (2011) highlighted key barriers to social media usage by higher education faculty. These were lack of integrity of online submissions, privacy concerns, lack of integration with existing learning management system, steep learning curve, and lack of institutional support. Students are concerned that their personal information could be seen by their teachers (Akçayir 2017). The concerns of privacy invasion on social media, especially when teachers and students are able to see each other's profiles and access personal information, are a major challenge. Another negative effect of social media is that some students might unknowingly publish content that might harm their reputation, which might have an effect on their study too. (Chugh & Ruhi, 2019, p.3)

And this one:

Donelan (2016) found that the main barriers offered by academics for not using social media included lack of time (time to learn and use social media); lack of confidence, ability and skills; lack of interest; and negative perceptions (particularly with regard to the use of Twitter and blogs) in terms of the usefulness of social media to complement learning and teaching. More recently, Sapkota and Vander Putten's (2018) study on social media in learning and teaching established that although academics accepted the importance of social media as a tool to use in business, they could not agree on its inclusion in the curriculum. (Chugh et al., 2020, p.993)

The above are all very substantial hurdles for advocates of social media in higher education settings to overcome and, given these pros and cons, can higher education institutions ensure responsible, productive, and effective use of social media by students and educators alike in higher education environments? How can instructors leverage social media tools to create a collaborative and engaging learning experience for students while minimizing their downsides? In the CNBC Africa video both students and the professor offer some useful guidelines. First, they say, the key is for students to create personal social media boundaries for themselves and to exercise discipline and restraint in their productive use of social media. Second, educational institutions need to impose strict limits on social media use in the classroom as well as class rules. Third, the higher education social media environment should mimic that of professional, real-world social media environment, context, and practices to provide a seamless transition for students into the professional world. This may mean if a certain use of social media is "not Ok" in a professional and industrial context, it is also "not Ok" in an academic context and setting. Fourth, educational institutions must put in place and ensure adherence to institutional policies and procedures around the use of social media in academic environments. (CNBC Africa, 2024)

In conclusion, a very last and a very inspiring quote:

The use of social media for educational purposes is limited only by the resourcefulness of users. Gone are the days when academics could get by with a chalk and talk approach to student learning. Today's students want more; they want to be exposed to learning practices and teaching materials that take advantage of developments in social media. No longer can academics provide learning approaches that may have been acceptable at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Times have changed and academics must move with the times and as this review highlights, there is still a long way to go in using social media to its full potential in academia. (Chugh et al., 2020, p.995)

Social media in academic higher education settings can be a friend that opens the world for your learners, offering engaging learning opportunities and ensuring their future professional success, and, when used improperly, can also become your enemy, contributing to your students overwhelm and promoting student mistreatment or harassment, while also ruining their academic and professional reputation. Yet, I believe we CAN do hard things, and we also cannot block our students from the world around them, therefore, with regard to the use of social media in academic settings, we must rely on evidence-based knowledge, our wise and good intentions and an abundance of caution, but we must integrate innovative and useful social media tools into our educational settings. Start small, find a social media advocate in your academic setting or become one, consult with your supervisors and your legal department, educate yourself in the proper use of social media and how to best leverage it in your academic setting, and then introduce and implement social media tools at your college or university. Your students and your institution will be glad you did!

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