This study provides a bibliometric mapping of the worldwide research on social media and digital learning adoption in higher education. This study assesses publication trends, prolific sources, country-wise output, author profiles, and underlying conceptual structures of 4,013 Scopus-indexed documents published during 2021-2026 using R-based bibliometric mapping tools. Annual scientific output gradually rose from 538 articles in 2021 to 1,107 articles in 2025. The analysis of keyword co-occurrence networks and thematic maps shows that the main themes of the field are student engagement, online learning environments, and educational technology, which are mature core themes, while social media adoption and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) constructs are still specialized and peripheral research clusters. This structural disconnect implies that although digital learning infrastructure has been well-mapped, the psychological mechanism that leads to academic social media use has been under-explored. To address this theoretical gap, a future research agenda and an extended theoretical framework are offered to assess the way university students translate technological perceptions into active academic use.
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