As information technology has been developed in a rapid way, a lot of users get to be familiar with social media. Accordingly, the possibility of social media for educational use has increased. From the view point of learning, social media help learners make communities of practice that can lead to collective intelligence. In this study, two different types of social media, synchronous and asynchronous, were compared in terms of usage patterns in the e-learning settings of college level. Content analysis has figured out four factors: learning content, tasks and assignments, emotional communications, and chatting. There found to be a statistical differences in the postings in all of the factors except tasks and assignments. In the qualitative interviews, the participants told various usage patterns of synchronous and asynchronous social media. In sum, the learners generally preferred synchronous social media. Rather, asynchronous social media were mainly used for deep thinking and summarizing. Last, suggestions were made to improve educational environments for the learners in the digital and social media age.