Abstract
The (coronavirus disease of 2019) COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes in education, leading to the exploration of unconventional learning tools. This study investigates the use of the popular social media platform Instagram as a means of facilitating self-directed learning. A survey was conducted among university students with 500 respondents participating anonymously. 63% of the respondents were female, and 85.2 %, were aged under 30. Only 7.6% of participants reported negative mental health issues relating to Instagram use, while the majority revealed positive attitudes, competitiveness, and strong focus on their educational goals. Instagram served as a platform for students to form small or large social circles in which they supported one another by addressing their educational needs, assisting each other with challenging assignments, and engaging in small group study sessions and quizzes. Notably, most respondents (65.4%) indicated that they use educational Instagram pages as a source of knowledge and learning, while a significant portion (34.6%) mentioned that while they access the platform with the intention of learning, they also encounter unnecessary or irrelevant posts, resulting in time wastage. In conclusion, this paper suggests that while Instagram may not be the ideal tool for deployment within a teacher's arsenal, it can serve as an effective source of peer mentoring and support in the post-COVID educational world.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0015/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>
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