The 21st century has brought about an increase in the popularity of social media networking usage on a global level, especially among college students. Social connectivity has become a vital part of the daily lives of college students, providing connections with their educational, personal, and social lives. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the actual experiences and self-reported perceptions of health/safety risks in college students using social media networking sites and to assess whether critical thinking skills were employed. The sample size of the targeted population was 23 volunteer college students, recruited from the Walden University Participant Pool, upon which the data was compiled from their individual responses to the 14 research questions based on their social media usage. The two conceptual frameworks used in this research were self-efficacy theory and the health belief model. The qualitative analysis applied was thematic. The results of this study revealed that the perceived health and safety risks of the college students and individual critical thinking skills were applied in making informed decisions when using social media networking. This preliminary study has implications for positive social change, in that the findings may inform advocacy in the proposal of public health legislation policy measures that can secure safe social media networking usage while protecting individual personal identity information and physical safety. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]