The paper deals with the problem of studying of social media in contemporary social science. The authors note that the importance of research in the field of social media derives both from the development of social science itself and from the necessity to solve some sort of problems in society. That is why the authors study the current state of the theoretical analysis of social media and empirical research in this area. Comparing and analyzing the results of various studies, the authors conclude that theoretical studies in the field of social media are very fragmented and do not create any conceptual basis for empirical research. The empirical analysis at the same moment focuses on pragmatic issues and does not help to solve existing difficulties in the development of social media theory.