Background and Objective: In the digital age, social networks, particularly Instagram with its visual and algorithm-driven nature, have created a complex arena for shaping culture, identity, and social relations. This study aims to investigate the dual and conflicting role of Instagram in strengthening cohesion or deepening socio-cultural gaps and to provide practical strategies based on the country's upstream documents.

Method: The present study employs a qualitative meta-synthesis method and thematic analysis to systematically synthesize the findings of 25 selected domestic and international studies published between 2018 and 2025. Data were collected through a systematic search of reputable scientific databases using relevant keywords .

Findings: The thematic analysis of the 25 selected studies led to the identification of a dual-framework for Instagram's effects on cultural cohesion and cultural gap. The findings indicate that this platform simultaneously possesses cohesion-building mechanisms, including strengthening social ties, fostering emotional capital, and empowering marginalized groups, as well as gap-creating mechanisms, such as intensifying harmful social comparison, forming echo chambers and ideological polarization, deepening generational gaps, and eroding social capital.

Results: The results show that the ultimate impact of Instagram on the cultural fabric of society is not inherent to the platform's nature, but rather depends on the cultural context, users' media literacy, consumption patterns, and—most importantly—its technical design and algorithmic orientations. This platform is not intrinsically neutral, but rather an arena for the interplay of opposing mechanisms, whose final outcome is highly dependent on contextual factors and platform design.