Social Media: The New Front Line for Military Culture

Social media is more than just a tool; it's transforming military culture at its core. In this episode, we look into how platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter are reshaping communication, camaraderie, and public perceptions of service members. While the connectivity provided by these platforms offers crucial support and community to troops, it also poses significant challenges, including operational security concerns and the risk of misinformation.

We explore the double-edged sword that is social media in the military context—offering recruitment benefits while raising critical security questions. How does a seemingly innocent post turn into a security risk? What should troops consider before hitting "post"?

As military influencers work towards bridging the gap between military life and civilian understanding, the need for responsible engagement grows ever more vital. Tune in for insights that challenge conventional narratives and invite listeners to ponder the evolving relationship between the military community and social media. Join the conversation and consider whether social media is ultimately a force for good or a source of risk for the military. Don't forget to share your thoughts—your voice matters in this ongoing discussion!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Social Media's Impact
• 12:00 Benefits and Risks of Social Media in Military Life
• 25:00 Social Media, Recruitment, and Military Culture

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Did you know that over 80% of active duty military personnel use social media on a daily basis? That's right. Platforms like Instagram, twitter, tiktok have become a huge part of our military lives. But what does that mean for the military culture? Today we're getting into how social media is reshaping communication, camaraderie and even the perception of service members in the modern day world. All right, welcome back to the Roger Sarnt Podcast, where we talk all things Army and I'm your host, sargent Cruz. In today's episode, we're going to give a look into the growing influence of social media on the military culture itself, the world, or to shaping like public narratives.

Speaker 1: 1:08

I think social media is no longer a pastime for the troops that are bored in a regular cough on a day-to-day basis. So it's a force. Yeah, let's call it a force. It's a force that affects service members, like their lives, how they interact, even how they operate on a daily basis. Right so? But with new power comes challenges, responsibilities and definitely major shifts in military traditions. Kind of like what Biggie said back in the day more money, more problems, but whatever, all right. So let's go ahead and break this down. So social media in itself is a double-edged sword, right, at least in the military. I think we can agree to that. So, while it does help bring a sense of community and makes communication a lot easier, because we all get those texts after 1800, it also brings up like some serious concerns, and if you're a texter after 1800, rethink your strategy. Nah, I'm being a hypocrite because I do them too. All right, so I'm talking about the good old OPSEC, right, operational security, those OPSEC violations. So apparently, apparently, those OPSEC violations, so apparently, apparently, they are kind of like there's a rise in those issues, right, like, with unintentional type leaks and of sensitive information, it's happening a lot more frequently.

Speaker 1: 2:38

So, additionally, there's like a huge spread of misinformation that's gonna, or it can, it can, impact like public opinion and definitely internal morale. So consider this um, let's imagine a troop who posts an innocent picture while deployed in a public location. Right, right, so now, without realizing it, they could have revealed their unit's position. Ultimately it's going to put lives at risk, right, we could agree to that. But, on a broader scale, viral misinformation about the military, about, like our actions, particularly, it can stir up unnecessary controversies or even, um, cause like some type of diplomatic tension. So you know how they say like a picture is worth a thousand words.

Speaker 1: 3:36

So I think this can also be true based on perception, even even though I want to stress this it's not reality. The news doesn't need it to be real to run with it, or those who are looking on social media, they don't need it to be real, they can just go ahead, get their own opinion, they formulate it and now they're going to make a video on top of that, or or or. A lot of times what happens is someone will take a pic, uh, a video, and they'll screenshot it or screen record it, and then they'll do like a reaction to it, right. And I remember on Tik TOK, there was one in particular about I think they were like um cooks. I think they were cooks and they were. They did some dance challenge, right, and they were kind of I guess they were twerking or something like that, and that hit tiktok and people just started just getting it in and and form, formulating their opinions, right, um, these are the examples of of what social media like, how it can be like a double-edged sword, if you will, but in reality, like we, we do have to understand that it's not all bad, right, it's not all bad Like social media itself. I keep bumping the table.

Speaker 1: 5:05

So social media is. It's also revolutionizing, like the military culture, in some good ways, in some good ways. So I'll give you some examples and we'll start off with recruitment strategies. Right, the military now, and for the past few years, they've been leveraging social media, like to target recruiting campaigns, like they're reaching younger audiences, because those are the ones who are mainly on social media and the most influenced, influential, no, the most influenced Right, because that's where they spend most of their time is scrolling through some type of app that they like the most.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Right, so, even though the rock horn swoggled the hell out of us, but that's neither here nor there, but recruiters on social media, they're doing their thing. I'm not going to lie to you. There's even some that they come up with, like a whole rap video. They'd be all right, like the lyrics, be okay, I enjoy it, but that's how far we're going. We got to get down to like the level of the potential recruits that we're trying to reach right, and music is a way.

Speaker 1: 6:25

So, and then we have then there's camaraderie and support, and I think social media platforms help service members stay in touch with their families, right, and it also helps share their experiences and, for the most, for the most part, creates a sense of unity, even when you're stationed thousands of miles away, like again, I think I said this in a last video, but I have a Facebook messenger chat that I talked to the guys that I, that I what is it called? I instructed with them from like 2017 to about 2020. That was my block of time of instruction, right, that was my duty time, and that was in Grafenwoehr, germany, at the 7th Army NCO Academy, and we still stay in touch to this day. We'll throw some subjects in there, we'll get all rowdy about it and then we'll just whatever it is, we'll just talk, right, we'll stay in communication, even though I don't know if they banned me or if they found a way to kind of like not allow me to find them when I want to share something, because I stay sharing, like, either a meme or video that I find funny, kind of like that you know what, now that I think about it, my mom does this to me. Anything she finds cute, adorable, she sends it to me. I wonder if I'm getting to be like my mom, like if I'm getting old. I think that's what I just realized. I'm that old dude, right, that's sending all these memes and stuff that I find funny. And when I asked in the chat one of my best friends, uh, hennon, he says that's because they're trash. I was like damn, I didn't know, trying to make everyone happy and smile and stuff like that was trash. But whatever, um, it is what it is. I digress. So there's also. There's also public perception and transparency, right. So, um, so, troops in the military they kind of use social media to tell their own stories, they break down stereotypes and they provide like firsthand perception or perspectives on the service life. Now, sometimes this gets us in trouble, if you will, because we kind of take some stuff to social media that we probably shouldn't be doing. I'll give you guys an example of that. This was actually. This was when we were, when I was an instructor.

Speaker 1: 8:54

There's a Facebook wife page, right, or army wives, whatever it is right In that general area. I know there's many of them other places, but there's a Facebook page that's specifically for Grafenwoehrer, for the wives, and this wife particularly. I think she was a wife of a staff sergeant. I remember either a sergeant or a staff sergeant, one of the two, but it was an NCO, so she slammed the command team. Something happened, I can't remember. Something happened. She slammed them on Facebook and less than a month later she and the kids were eroded back to the States.

Speaker 1: 9:33

So there are some things that there are different ways that we need to approach them, and not everything goes on social media. I know for a while we would say, oh, facebook is fake, it's not, it's not real life, whatever it is. But when you put real life things on Facebook, then, um, or on social media, then now it becomes real life, right, because someone is going to react to it. And sometimes we're at the short end of the stick when we get reacted to, because we're in the military and we have superiors and if you as a spouse and this is male, female spouse you can say whatever you want, you're right, but you do have kind of like a DOD ID number or a dependent ID number, so that makes you kind of like a part of the military. So you can't just say what you want and not have repercussions, and this happens to troops every single day. All right, so, but I will say that we've come when it comes to social media. We've come so far that the army itself has a EA sports team and social media influencers that are in uniform who are trying to bridge the gap, like between the military life and civilian understanding. So this ultimately makes serving feel more like, accessible to the general public but, most importantly, most importantly, more relatable. Do me a favor real fast, like subscribe and hit that notification bell. Subscribe and hit that notification bell, um.

Speaker 1: 11:17

So next thing I want to say is, like one, one of the uh, most, I guess the most profound shifts that came when service members started using social media was to document like in real time, like real-time events like they. They did a whole bunch of like humanitarian efforts and active conflicts like that, that that were being posted and um, and there's like a recent case of that involved like deployed people using the platforms to highlight conditions that are on, like in real-time conditions that they're on the ground, like there and um, that kind of like it. It challenges like the mainstream media, like the narrative, and it gives, like the world, an unfiltered look at military operations, right, at what we're doing. But I think the question is does um, does this help or does this hurt, like the military itself, right, um, that's, I think that's the debate that we need to have, because I do remember this one time we were in poland, right, and I specifically remember they were um, it was less than two hours.

Speaker 1: 12:30

We got on ground, we were in tents at the time and we were transient tents, but this turned out to be our actual living space because we it was two brigades there, it was a brigade from Colorado and then it was us and we technically weren't supposed to be there. I'm not gonna lie, we got there either, yeah, cause the whole time they were there. So they started filming and I think it was on snapchat or something they that they did it and if you don't turn off your location, if you don't go ghost, people can see you. So I think the s2 section, I can't remember they they found that, um, that clip of of of that soldier like showing our living conditions, which weren't optimal. You, I'm not going to lie to you, they weren't optimal and they went straight down to them, right, and they were on a whole different fob at the time.

Speaker 1: 13:21

But this happens more times than not and people see that right, and this puts out information to the general public, to our adversaries and to our families, and some people can get a little worried. But I think the net of it is social media is changing the military culture in fundamental ways, some better, some with risk, because I don't want to say for worse, but some have risk. It connects troops, it's an aid for recruitment and at the same time, it improves transparency for the public. But it also poses security threats and raises the questions about how the military should engage with an ever connected world world, because that's what we're turning into. So, but as the operational environment evolves, so must our understanding of that evolving, and policies around it. We have to create policies around it.

Speaker 1: 14:26

Now I want to hear from you Do you think social media is ultimately a good or a bad thing for the military? Right? So drop your thoughts and comments and, if you found this discussion insightful, check out one of my other videos that I deep dive into the military culture. I have a whole playlist. And don't forget, you don't have to embrace the suck if you got the right tools in your rug. I'm Sarn Cruz and I'm out. Peace, roger Sarn Cruz and I'm out. Peace, roger Sarn.