Background Social media use has exploded, attaining a significant influence within medicine. Previous studies have denoted the use of social media in various surgical specialties as a means to exchange professional ideas and improve the conference experience and at the same time, some have assessed its feasibility as a method of education. This systematic review aims to characterize the use of social media as a tool for general surgery education. Methods A systematic review of several databases from each database inception was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. The JBI’s critical appraisal tools were used to assess quality of the studies. Results A total of 861 articles were identified of which 222 were duplicates removed. The titles and abstracts from the remaining 639 abstracts were screened and 589 were excluded. The remaining 51 full articles were analyzed for eligibility, of which 24 met inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. These studies covered the general surgery specialty, of which 11 ( n = 46%) focused on the laparoscopic surgical approach, 1 ( n = 4%) on robotic-assisted surgical procedures, 1 ( n = 4%) on both surgical approaches previously mentioned and 11 ( n = 46%) on the general surgery specialty regardless of the surgical approach or technique. Conclusions Advantages that SM offers should be considered, and content creators and institutions should help collectively to make sure that the content being published is evidence and guideline-based so its use it is taken to the maximum benefit. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00464-022-09150-9.