**4. The purpose of using social media in higher education**

For educational environments to be improved by encouraging creative thinking and innovative action, state education strategies often foresee measures for the development and expansion of e-learning, the introduction of expert teaching systems and other modern teaching methods based on information and communication technology, the dynamic development and application of which radically change the paradigms of learning and education, with impacts and consequences that are difficult to predict on future ways of acquiring, transferring and applying knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes [7].

On the trail of such measures, the range of social media enables a wide range of possible purposeful ways of use, and in addition, they are constantly increasing and generating new possibilities of use. Some possible purposes are listed in the following **Table 2**.



#### **Table 2.**

*Purposes of using social media in higher education [3].*

The globe has become smaller because of social media, according to Raut and Patil in 2016 [8]; people have access to more knowledge, information, and opportunities to apply it. With their aid, it is now feasible to process material that would have been too difficult for humans to understand just 20 years ago, and in addition to speeding up our education and training, talents are also identified more quickly [8]. They have also increased our ability to absorb information.

Social media use in higher education is subject to both pro and con arguments.

### **5. General implications of the use of social media in higher education**

The main educational implication of social media is the seemingly changing nature of the relationship between students and information and knowledge. The epistemological tenets of formal education and tailored instruction are fundamentally different from the modes of knowledge generation and consumption that social media promote [9]. These changes are embodied in Thomas and Seely Brown's [10] description of a technology-enhanced "new culture of learning"—that is, learning based on the principles of collective inquiry, play, and innovation rather than individualized instruction. The generation of today's students has organically grown up with social media. Additionally, they have little knowledge of a world without computers, smartphones, or social media. A technology that has been widely embraced by students is social media, which has the potential to be a useful tool for boosting communication in the classroom and student cooperation with professors [11].

However, several studies show that there is a digital divide between students and their educational institutions; students are willing to use them, and faculty employees are not [12].

To investigate in practice whether this is the case, that is, what affects teachers" use of social media, a survey was conducted in 2019.
