Understanding the Use of Social Media to Foster Student Creativity: A Systematic Literature Review

Social media have been increasingly used by youth to communicate with peers, access information, share creations, and express themselves. As a result, educators and researchers have recognized the potential for using social media to enhance teaching and learning experiences. Some scholars have also identified a relationship between social media integration and promoting student creativity. However, as with any educational technology, using a tool, such as social media, does not automatically increase creativity. In other words, the specific methods used to integrate social media as part of a learning experience affect the tool’s influence on the learning process. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to review literature considering the use of social media in formal learning environments and examine their relationship with enhancing student creativity. We conducted a search to locate empirical studies (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed method) published between 2010 and 2020 from the Academic Search Premier, Education Full Text, Education Source, ERIC, and PsychINFO databases. In the results, we describe how social media were used for instructional purposes in the selected studies and discuss the social media affordances that lead to fostering students’ creativity. Additionally, we provide recommendations for educators interested in integrating social media into their teaching practice, specifically to boost student creativity, and we offer suggestions for future research.