High school and university students' use of social networks to support their self-education

Today's generation of high school and college students live in the digital age. Digital technologies are an integral part of not only their personal but also their professional lives. The use of digital technologies during studies is almost a necessity. One of the key tools that students use is the internet. Here we can conceive of the Internet not only as a source of information, but also as a way of communication between students or teachers. A large part of the communication channels are social networks. At first glance, social networks may seem more like a means of entertainment. However, in today's digitalized world, social networks are also penetrating education, and are often deliberately used to support the educational process. In this paper, the authors focus on the use of social networking by secondary and higher education students to support their education. In this paper, the authors describe the theoretical background, where they mainly focus on the field of social networking, education in secondary and higher education, and describe selected publications that focus on the relationship between social networking and education. The second part of the paper is based on a questionnaire survey, the results of which the authors present in graphical form and comment verbally. The questionnaire survey investigated how students use social networks during their self-education outside the school environment. In the conclusion of the paper, the authors discuss the results of the questionnaire survey, describe the limitations of the research and possible ways to continue the research.