Rethinking the Role of Social Media in Learning

For the past two decades, social media platforms have been designed and developed by powerful technology companies with the stated purpose of fostering connections, communication, and content sharing across personal, professional, and educational contexts. From classroom backchannels to global professional learning networks, social media has been lauded for its ability to foster collaboration, support informal learning, and build communities of practice. In digital and online learning environments, in particular, social media has offered novel ways to engage learners, extend learning beyond institutional boundaries, and amplify marginalized voices.

Despite its promised and achieved potential, the use of social media for learning is becoming increasingly complicated, as new and urgent issues arise to challenge it. The spread of misinformation, digital echo chambers, algorithmic biases, and performative behaviors on social platforms continues to raise significant concerns about the credibility, equity, and its overall utility in education and in supporting learning. Moreover, the rapid growth of Generative AI (GenAI) into social media platforms introduces new dynamics, altering how knowledge is produced, shared, and consumed, often without adequate critical examination. Now more than ever, scholars and educators need to rethink the role of social media in educational contexts and in learning environments broadly, to arrive at a well-balanced perspective that celebrates social media’s success and points to its problems.

This Research Topic of Frontiers in Education invites researchers, designers, educators, and theorists to critically examine the evolving role of social media in learning. We seek to surface perspectives that help move the conversation beyond techno-optimism or techno-pessimism, and toward a more nuanced and well-balanced understanding of how social media platforms shape learning experiences, identities, and outcomes across formal and informal educational contexts.

We welcome empirical studies, systematic literature reviews, theoretical and/or position papers, and design cases that explore one or more of the following themes:

- Critical analyses of the role of social media in learning and education (including but not limited to K–12, higher education, informal learning settings, and organizational learning environments)
- Design cases or empirical examples of effective integration of social media for enhancing collaboration, knowledge sharing, or professional learning
- Social media as a site of informal learning, including investigations of best practices, threats to equitable learning, and emerging opportunities
- The impact of Generative AI on social media content and its implications for learning, such as authenticity, authorship, engagement, and epistemic trust

We especially encourage contributions that employ interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary frameworks, critical and/or design-based methods, and work that addresses issues of equity, access, and learner agency. Covert and overt technology effect studies, as well as media comparison studies, are NOT welcome.

We encourage authors to email and discuss their proposals with us to ensure that their proposed paper aligns with this call and the goal we aim to achieve.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Social Media, Digital Learning, Informal Learning, Knowledge Sharing, Professional Education Networks, Communities of Practice

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.