Empowered by, and tethered to, ubiquitous technologies, the current generation of youth yearns for opportunities to engage in self-expression and information sharing online with personal disclosure no longer governed by concepts of propriety and privacy. This raises issues about the unsafe activities of teens and young adults. The following paper presents the findings of a study examining the social networking activities of undergraduate students and also highlights a program to increase awareness of the dangers of, and safe practices using, social media. According to the survey results, young adults practice risky social networking site (SNS) behaviors with most having experienced at least one negative consequence. Further, females were more likely than males to engage in oversharing as well as to have experienced negative consequences. Finally, results of a post-treatment survey found that a targeted program that includes flyers, posters, YouTube videos, handouts, and in-class information sessions conducted at a Mid-Atlantic HBCU increased student awareness of the dangers of social media as well as positively influenced students to practice more prudent online behaviors.

A revised version of this paper was published in Interdisciplinary Journal of e-Skills and Life Long Learning
Volume 11, 2015 as "Communicating and Sharing in the Semantic Web: An Examination of Social Media Risks,
Consequences, and Attitudinal Awareness"