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Christian Primm Gretchen Pratt English 1102 30 March 2014

Social Media and the Military

Close to Home When Barry Courie got on the plane destined for Iraq, his wife cried for hours. How do I know this? Well, I was there. Barry Courie, my uncle, is an electrical engineer for the United States Marines and works on an aircraft called the V-22 Osprey. In early 2010, he was informed of a problem that was occurring in the aircraft which he was working on. To try and fix this problem, he and 3 other engineers from Camp Lejeune Air Base were asked to go to Iraq to attempt and resolve the issue. The question that immediately popped into everyones mind was, how are we going to talk to him while hes over there? This is when social media enters the equation. When I asked Patricia Courie (my aunt, who I will refer to as Patti) how she communicated with her husband during his deployment, her answers surprised me a little bit. I always expected that families would have somewhat easy access to each other but her response suggested otherwise. The main way that we communicated was over email. The cameras which were supposed to be for Skype rarely worked. I called him whenever I could but the time difference made that very difficult (Courie, 2014). This in itself is enough to stress some families out. If a family has a plan for communication which is set ahead of deployment, faulty equipment can be a hindrance to that schedule. What I am hoping to find out through this paper

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is this. Does the government manage social media effectively? And if so in what ways does it uphold the laws set forth in order to protect sensitive information from leaking out? Importance of Communication between Family Members Communication between husband and wife is extremely important in situations such as deployment. One could argue however that the interaction between parent and child. Especially if they are young children. The role of fathers in a childs development has come to the forefront of research and policy in recent years. A fathers role is seen as particularly important because of concerns of the difficulties faced by some fathers in sustaining relationships with their children, with almost 20 per cent of fathers reporting that they feel left out of their upbringing (Chawla-Duggan)." This statistic also includes fathers who arent overseas for months at a time. Given this, it is vitally important for fathers to connect to their young children as much as possible while away. The same is true of course with mothers. Duggan went on to talk about the importance of both parents being active in the childs life. Either way, a parent should be able to communicate with their child, and any kind of lapse in technology which could prevent this communication could prove detrimental to the overall health of a parent-child relationship.

How can the Government Provide Social Media to the Troops? A very important question that you have to ask is this: Even if we know that social media can benefit the health of long distance relationships, how can it be provided when there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers worldwide? I had the idea that even though the base that my uncle was stationed at doesnt reflect the entire military, looking at the availability of social media and other communication resources at his base might give me some insight into the

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availability of these things over the whole military. What I wanted was specific. What interests me is the facilities and resources allocated specifically for communication via social media. When asked about this he responded with There was a stucco building, which is kinda weird to see in a desert camp. I didnt ask why but I assume that this is due to the rigidity of the structure. Inside there were 25 or 30 computers that all had internet access. Three were reserved for officers only and the others were for the rest of us (B. Courie, 2014). Armed with this knowledge I searched for more information on this. I also learned that although there were constant troop movements, there were around 1400 people on the base at any given time. It makes sense that this made it very difficult to find time to use a computer. In fact if you do the math, it comes out to be about 47 people per computer. This made the demand for computer time very high and the actual amount of time you could spend (on the internet/social media) very low.
This picture here is likely what it would look like in a communication tent/building. I found this image with the help of my uncle who remarked that it looked strikingly like the one on the base where he was stationed.

Regulation? Now that we know that there are ways for soldiers to communicate over social media, there are some things that we need to understand. Social media is a privilege and with all

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privileges come responsibilities. Soldiers are expected to maintain a level of professionalism at all times. They are bound by rules such as the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) which outlines the code of ethics which they are accountable for upholding both online and in everyday life. Along with being professional, they must be wary of sensitive information and never disclose anything which could be used against them. The government enforces this strictly because of the severity that just one slip-up can have. One such slip-up is one involving NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Just like everyone else, the members of this board have Facebook accounts that they use to connect to colleagues and friends. In 2012, several members of the NATO council received a friend request from an account with a name matching that of a Navy Fleet Admiral. At first everything seemed normal but soon, the account activity began to seem strange. The account sent messages to the members of the council asking for details about a senior Navy official. Since many of the NATO council members also hold high end government positions, they have access to information on this sort of scale. Foolishly and against proper judgment, several members replied with comments discussing information which they knew about the man. Days later the account was found to be fake when the Navy Admiral was questioned. After finding out that they had shared information with someone other than who they had thought, the members of NATO, along with the Department of Defence, tracked down the address. The IP address connected to the account was found to have originated from a city in China. It seems amazing that something like a fake Facebook account could lead to all of this trouble but it doesnt end there. After a trial was conducted on all members involved, it was determined that a lack of judgment by several members of NATO caused a security breach which in the end cost the

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government millions of dollars to fix. Several of the members of NATO were dismissed from the board while others were suspended for having contributed to the leak. (Lewis, 2012)

What are the Limits? There were plenty of things he couldnt tell me. He could let me know that he was coming home soon but couldnt tell me the exact date for one (Courie, 2014). This quote is in response to another question which I asked Patti Courie regarding her ability to communicate with her husband. I think that one of the most important things to understand here is that social media often has no filters. Once its out there, its too late. Thats why there are so many restrictions set by the government. Communication is essential but the quickness of modern day social media can easily let slip information that would be otherwise off limits. To understand this better, I asked the party who was deployed. There was a list of things on every computer that we were forbidden to talk about under any circumstance. There was usually a code that was issued every time something major happened on base. If someone was killed or injured, communication ceased entirely until their family members were notified (B. Courie, 2014). Clearly, there are limits to what can and cant be said. Given this, most conversations never drift to this as they simply aim to find out how the other person is doing. So can people go too far on social media? The simple answer is yes. The limits are most times very clearly displayed. The government uses strict guidelines so that the integrity of the military can be preserved while allowing people access to social media sites.

A Healthy Balance

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I think that social media in the military is a great thing. While this is an opinion, I know that many others share this opinion. I think that social media allows soldiers to communicate with their loved ones which in turn brings some peace to a hectic situation (being deployment). The government has attempted to do their part by establishing guidelines and regulations for military personnel to follow. Social media and the regulations set by the government create the healthy balance. Most members of the military utilize this resource effectively and abide by the rules which they are supposed to obey. In general members of the military approve of their social media experience and the way in which the government regulates it. According to a 2011 poll done by Pew Research 84% of the military participates in social media communication and 78% of these people are satisfied with their experience. These numbers prove two things. First it proves that social media really is necessary to modern communication because of the sheer majority that use social media to those that do not. It also proves that while some people think that the way that social media is handled by the government could use some work, most people believe that they are doing a good job. The government (my opinion once more) has provided the United States Military with funding that enables families to effectively communicate with each other while doing their best to uphold the principles of the military and the responsibility that comes with being a member of it.

I think that it is fair to say that there is no real answer to the question: Does the military effectively manage social media? There are good things and bad things that arise from the use of social media. Some of the largest problems which arise from social media in the military deal with issues which either come from a lapse in proper judgment or from an individual who is purposely doing wrong. These are both far from the norm as we have seen. I think that its

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important to measure the pros of social media versus the cons and see that overall the government tries their best. Given this, there are still areas where it could be strengthened. If not in security then in availability (remember the numbers given earlier). To wrap everything together, I think that the initial question which I posed is not able to be answered by me. I cannot just tell you what to think. With the research done, it is up to you to decide whether or not a respectable job is being done. I do know that the government has done their best to create strategies to protect their integrity while allowing members of the military access to their family members and loved ones via the internet and social media world. I think that with technology advancing at the rate at which it is, we will see further improvements in the security and availability aspects of social media, and in the management of social media in the military by the government.

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Works Cited Courie, Patricia. Personal interview. 29 Mar. 2014. Courie, Barry. Personal interview. 29 Mar. 2014. Matthews-Juarez, Pat, Paul Juarez, and Roosevelt Faulkner. "Social Media and The Military: A Perspective." Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 23.6 (2013): 769776. Web 2/23/14 Chandra, Anita , Rachel Burns, Terry Tanielian, Lisa Jaycox, and Molly Scott. "Understanding the Impact of Deployment on Children and Families."Working Paper WR-566 (2008): 1-67. Web 02/23/14. "Social Networking Fact Sheet." Pew Research Centers Internet American Life Project RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-

networking-fact-sheet/>. Chawla-Duggan, Rita. Exploring the Role of Father Development Workers in Supporting Early Years Learning. Bath: Taylor and Francis, 2007. Print.