March 5, 2025 • 15 mins
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!
Thanks for listening, please download and leave a review.
Remember, you don't have to embrace the suck, if you have the right tools in your ruck!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you know that over 80% of active duty military
personnel use social media on adaily basis?
That's right.
Platforms like Instagram,twitter, tiktok have become a
huge part of our military lives.
But what does that mean for themilitary culture?
Today we're getting into howsocial media is reshaping
communication, camaraderie andeven the perception of service
(00:25):
members in the modern day world.
All right, welcome back to theRoger Sarnt Podcast, where we
talk all things Army and I'myour host, sargent Cruz.
(00:45):
In today's episode, we're goingto give a look into the growing
influence of social media onthe military culture itself, the
(01:07):
world, or to shaping likepublic narratives.
I think social media is nolonger a pastime for the troops
that are bored in a regularcough on a day-to-day basis.
So it's a force.
Yeah, let's call it a force.
It's a force that affectsservice members, like their
lives, how they interact, evenhow they operate on a daily
basis.
Right so?
But with new power comeschallenges, responsibilities and
(01:35):
definitely major shifts inmilitary traditions.
Kind of like what Biggie saidback in the day more money, more
problems, but whatever, allright.
So let's go ahead and breakthis down.
So social media in itself is adouble-edged sword, right, at
least in the military.
I think we can agree to that.
So, while it does help bring asense of community and makes
(01:58):
communication a lot easier,because we all get those texts
after 1800, it also brings uplike some serious concerns, and
if you're a texter after 1800,rethink your strategy.
Nah, I'm being a hypocritebecause I do them too.
All right, so I'm talking aboutthe good old OPSEC, right,
(02:18):
operational security, thoseOPSEC violations.
So apparently, apparently,those OPSEC violations, so
apparently, apparently, they arekind of like there's a rise in
those issues, right, like, withunintentional type leaks and of
sensitive information, it'shappening a lot more frequently.
So, additionally, there's like ahuge spread of misinformation
(02:43):
that's gonna, or it can, it can,impact like public opinion and
definitely internal morale.
So consider this um, let'simagine a troop who posts an
innocent picture while deployedin a public location.
Right, right, so now, withoutrealizing it, they could have
(03:06):
revealed their unit's position.
Ultimately it's going to putlives at risk, right, we could
agree to that.
But, on a broader scale, viralmisinformation about the
military, about, like ouractions, particularly, it can
stir up unnecessarycontroversies or even, um, cause
(03:29):
like some type of diplomatictension.
So you know how they say like apicture is worth a thousand
words.
So I think this can also be truebased on perception, even even
though I want to stress thisit's not reality.
The news doesn't need it to bereal to run with it, or those
(03:57):
who are looking on social media,they don't need it to be real,
they can just go ahead, gettheir own opinion, they
formulate it and now they'regoing to make a video on top of
that, or or or.
A lot of times what happens issomeone will take a pic, uh, a
video, and they'll screenshot itor screen record it, and then
(04:19):
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 umcooks.
I think they were cooks andthey were.
They did some dance challenge,right, and they were kind of I
guess they were twerking orsomething like that, and that
(04:40):
hit tiktok and people juststarted just getting it in and
and form, formulating theiropinions, right, um, these are
the examples of of what socialmedia 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'snot all bad, right, it's not all
bad Like social media itself.
(05:02):
I keep bumping the table.
So social media is.
It's also revolutionizing, likethe military culture, in some
good ways, in some good ways.
So I'll give you some examplesand we'll start off with
recruitment strategies.
Right, the military now, andfor the past few years, they've
(05:25):
been leveraging social media,like to target recruiting
campaigns, like they're reachingyounger audiences, because
those are the ones who aremainly on social media and the
most influenced, influential, no, the most influenced Right,
because that's where they spendmost of their time is scrolling
through some type of app thatthey like the most.
(05:47):
Right, so, even though the rockhorn swoggled the hell out of us
, but that's neither here northere, but recruiters on social
media, they're doing their thing.
I'm not going to lie to you.
There's even some that theycome up with, like a whole rap
video.
They'd be all right, like thelyrics, be okay, I enjoy it, but
(06:12):
that's how far we're going.
We got to get down to like thelevel of the potential recruits
that we're trying to reach right, and music is a way.
So, and then we have thenthere's camaraderie and support,
and I think social mediaplatforms help service members
(06:34):
stay in touch with theirfamilies, right, and it also
helps share their experiencesand, for the most, for the most
part, creates a sense of unity,even when you're stationed
thousands of miles away, likeagain, I think I said this in a
last video, but I have aFacebook messenger chat that I
talked to the guys that I, thatI what is it called?
(06:56):
I instructed with them fromlike 2017 to about 2020.
That was my block of time ofinstruction, right, that was my
duty time, and that was inGrafenwoehr, germany, at the 7th
Army NCO Academy, and we stillstay in touch to this day.
We'll throw some subjects inthere, we'll get all rowdy about
it and then we'll just whateverit is, we'll just talk, right,
(07:21):
we'll stay in communication,even though I don't know if they
banned me or if they found away to kind of like not allow me
to find them when I want toshare something, because I stay
sharing, like, either a meme orvideo that I find funny, kind of
like that you know what, nowthat I think about it, my mom
does this to me.
Anything she finds cute,adorable, she sends it to me.
(07:44):
I wonder if I'm getting to belike my mom, like if I'm getting
old.
I think that's what I justrealized.
I'm that old dude, right,that's sending all these memes
and stuff that I find funny.
And when I asked in the chatone of my best friends, uh,
hennon, he says that's becausethey're trash.
(08:05):
I was like damn, I didn't know,trying to make everyone happy
and smile and stuff like thatwas trash.
But whatever, um, it is what itis.
I digress.
So there's also.
There's also public perceptionand transparency, right.
So, um, so, troops in themilitary they kind of use social
media to tell their own stories, they break down stereotypes
(08:26):
and they provide like firsthandperception or perspectives on
the service life.
Now, sometimes this gets us introuble, if you will, because we
kind of take some stuff tosocial media that we probably
shouldn't be doing.
I'll give you guys an exampleof that.
(08:47):
This was actually.
This was when we were, when Iwas an instructor.
There's a Facebook wife page,right, or army wives, whatever
it is right In that general area.
I know there's many of themother places, but there's a
Facebook page that'sspecifically for Grafenwoehrer,
for the wives, and this wifeparticularly.
(09:10):
I think she was a wife of astaff sergeant.
I remember either a sergeant ora staff sergeant, one of the
two, but it was an NCO, so sheslammed the command team.
Something happened, I can'tremember.
Something happened.
She slammed them on Facebookand less than a month later she
and the kids were eroded back tothe States.
(09:33):
So there are some things thatthere are different ways that we
need to approach them, and noteverything goes on social media.
I know for a while we would say, oh, facebook is fake, it's not
, it's not real life, whateverit is.
But when you put real lifethings on Facebook, then, um, or
(09:54):
on social media, then now itbecomes real life, right,
because someone is going toreact to it.
And sometimes we're at theshort end of the stick when we
get reacted to, because we're inthe military and we have
superiors and if you as a spouseand this is male, female spouse
(10:15):
you can say whatever you want,you're right, but you do have
kind of like a DOD ID number ora dependent ID number, so that
makes you kind of like a part ofthe military.
So you can't just say what youwant and not have repercussions,
and this happens to troopsevery single day.
All right, so, but I will saythat we've come when it comes to
(10:40):
social media.
We've come so far that the armyitself has a EA sports team and
social media influencers thatare in uniform who are trying to
bridge the gap, like betweenthe military life and civilian
understanding.
So this ultimately makesserving feel more like,
accessible to the general publicbut, most importantly, most
(11:03):
importantly, more relatable.
Do me a favor real fast, likesubscribe and hit that
notification bell.
Subscribe and hit thatnotification bell, um.
So next thing I want to say is,like one, one of the uh, most, I
guess the most profound shiftsthat came when service members
started using social media wasto document like in real time,
(11:25):
like real-time events like they.
They did a whole bunch of likehumanitarian efforts and active
conflicts like that, that thatwere being posted and um, and
there's like a recent case ofthat involved like deployed
people using the platforms tohighlight conditions that are on
, like in real-time conditionsthat they're on the ground, like
(11:47):
there and um, that kind of likeit.
It challenges like themainstream media, like the
narrative, and it gives, likethe world, an unfiltered look at
military operations, right, atwhat we're doing.
But I think the question isdoes um, does this help or does
(12:09):
this hurt, like the militaryitself, right, um, that's, I
think that's the debate that weneed to have, because I do
remember this one time we werein poland, right, and I
specifically remember they wereum, it was less than two hours.
(12:30):
We got on ground, we were intents at the time and we were
transient tents, but this turnedout to be our actual living
space because we it was twobrigades there, it was a brigade
from Colorado and then it wasus and we technically weren't
supposed to be there.
I'm not gonna lie, we got thereeither, yeah, cause the whole
time they were there.
So they started filming and Ithink it was on snapchat or
(12:53):
something they that they did itand if you don't turn off your
location, if you don't go ghost,people can see you.
So I think the s2 section, Ican't remember they they found
that, um, that clip of of ofthat soldier like showing our
living conditions, which weren'toptimal.
You, I'm not going to lie toyou, they weren't optimal and
(13:15):
they went straight down to them,right, and they were on a whole
different fob at the time.
But this happens more times thannot and people see that right,
and this puts out information tothe general public, to our
adversaries and to our families,and some people can get a
little worried.
(13:35):
But I think the net of it issocial media is changing the
military culture in fundamentalways, some better, some with
risk, because I don't want tosay for worse, but some have
risk.
It connects troops, it's an aidfor recruitment and at the same
time, it improves transparencyfor the public.
(13:58):
But it also poses securitythreats and raises the questions
about how the military shouldengage with an ever connected
world world, because that's whatwe're turning into.
So, but as the operationalenvironment evolves, so must our
understanding of that evolving,and policies around it.
(14:22):
We have to create policiesaround it.
Now I want to hear from you Doyou think social media is
ultimately a good or a bad thingfor the military?
Right?
So drop your thoughts andcomments and, if you found this
discussion insightful, check outone of my other videos that I
deep dive into the militaryculture.
(14:44):
I have a whole playlist.
And don't forget, you don'thave 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'mout.
Peace, roger Sarn.
Did you know that over 80% of active duty military
personnel use social media on adaily basis?
That's right.
Platforms like Instagram,twitter, tiktok have become a
huge part of our military lives.
But what does that mean for themilitary culture?
Today we're getting into howsocial media is reshaping
communication, camaraderie andeven the perception of service
(00:25):
members in the modern day world.
All right, welcome back to theRoger Sarnt Podcast, where we
talk all things Army and I'myour host, sargent Cruz.
(00:45):
In today's episode, we're goingto give a look into the growing
influence of social media onthe military culture itself, the
(01:07):
world, or to shaping likepublic narratives.
I think social media is nolonger a pastime for the troops
that are bored in a regularcough on a day-to-day basis.
So it's a force.
Yeah, let's call it a force.
It's a force that affectsservice members, like their
lives, how they interact, evenhow they operate on a daily
basis.
Right so?
But with new power comeschallenges, responsibilities and
(01:35):
definitely major shifts inmilitary traditions.
Kind of like what Biggie saidback in the day more money, more
problems, but whatever, allright.
So let's go ahead and breakthis down.
So social media in itself is adouble-edged sword, right, at
least in the military.
I think we can agree to that.
So, while it does help bring asense of community and makes
(01:58):
communication a lot easier,because we all get those texts
after 1800, it also brings uplike some serious concerns, and
if you're a texter after 1800,rethink your strategy.
Nah, I'm being a hypocritebecause I do them too.
All right, so I'm talking aboutthe good old OPSEC, right,
(02:18):
operational security, thoseOPSEC violations.
So apparently, apparently,those OPSEC violations, so
apparently, apparently, they arekind of like there's a rise in
those issues, right, like, withunintentional type leaks and of
sensitive information, it'shappening a lot more frequently.
So, additionally, there's like ahuge spread of misinformation
(02:43):
that's gonna, or it can, it can,impact like public opinion and
definitely internal morale.
So consider this um, let'simagine a troop who posts an
innocent picture while deployedin a public location.
Right, right, so now, withoutrealizing it, they could have
(03:06):
revealed their unit's position.
Ultimately it's going to putlives at risk, right, we could
agree to that.
But, on a broader scale, viralmisinformation about the
military, about, like ouractions, particularly, it can
stir up unnecessarycontroversies or even, um, cause
(03:29):
like some type of diplomatictension.
So you know how they say like apicture is worth a thousand
words.
So I think this can also be truebased on perception, even even
though I want to stress thisit's not reality.
The news doesn't need it to bereal to run with it, or those
(03:57):
who are looking on social media,they don't need it to be real,
they can just go ahead, gettheir own opinion, they
formulate it and now they'regoing to make a video on top of
that, or or or.
A lot of times what happens issomeone will take a pic, uh, a
video, and they'll screenshot itor screen record it, and then
(04:19):
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 umcooks.
I think they were cooks andthey were.
They did some dance challenge,right, and they were kind of I
guess they were twerking orsomething like that, and that
(04:40):
hit tiktok and people juststarted just getting it in and
and form, formulating theiropinions, right, um, these are
the examples of of what socialmedia 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'snot all bad, right, it's not all
bad Like social media itself.
(05:02):
I keep bumping the table.
So social media is.
It's also revolutionizing, likethe military culture, in some
good ways, in some good ways.
So I'll give you some examplesand we'll start off with
recruitment strategies.
Right, the military now, andfor the past few years, they've
(05:25):
been leveraging social media,like to target recruiting
campaigns, like they're reachingyounger audiences, because
those are the ones who aremainly on social media and the
most influenced, influential, no, the most influenced Right,
because that's where they spendmost of their time is scrolling
through some type of app thatthey like the most.
(05:47):
Right, so, even though the rockhorn swoggled the hell out of us
, but that's neither here northere, but recruiters on social
media, they're doing their thing.
I'm not going to lie to you.
There's even some that theycome up with, like a whole rap
video.
They'd be all right, like thelyrics, be okay, I enjoy it, but
(06:12):
that's how far we're going.
We got to get down to like thelevel of the potential recruits
that we're trying to reach right, and music is a way.
So, and then we have thenthere's camaraderie and support,
and I think social mediaplatforms help service members
(06:34):
stay in touch with theirfamilies, right, and it also
helps share their experiencesand, for the most, for the most
part, creates a sense of unity,even when you're stationed
thousands of miles away, likeagain, I think I said this in a
last video, but I have aFacebook messenger chat that I
talked to the guys that I, thatI what is it called?
(06:56):
I instructed with them fromlike 2017 to about 2020.
That was my block of time ofinstruction, right, that was my
duty time, and that was inGrafenwoehr, germany, at the 7th
Army NCO Academy, and we stillstay in touch to this day.
We'll throw some subjects inthere, we'll get all rowdy about
it and then we'll just whateverit is, we'll just talk, right,
(07:21):
we'll stay in communication,even though I don't know if they
banned me or if they found away to kind of like not allow me
to find them when I want toshare something, because I stay
sharing, like, either a meme orvideo that I find funny, kind of
like that you know what, nowthat I think about it, my mom
does this to me.
Anything she finds cute,adorable, she sends it to me.
(07:44):
I wonder if I'm getting to belike my mom, like if I'm getting
old.
I think that's what I justrealized.
I'm that old dude, right,that's sending all these memes
and stuff that I find funny.
And when I asked in the chatone of my best friends, uh,
hennon, he says that's becausethey're trash.
(08:05):
I was like damn, I didn't know,trying to make everyone happy
and smile and stuff like thatwas trash.
But whatever, um, it is what itis.
I digress.
So there's also.
There's also public perceptionand transparency, right.
So, um, so, troops in themilitary they kind of use social
media to tell their own stories, they break down stereotypes
(08:26):
and they provide like firsthandperception or perspectives on
the service life.
Now, sometimes this gets us introuble, if you will, because we
kind of take some stuff tosocial media that we probably
shouldn't be doing.
I'll give you guys an exampleof that.
(08:47):
This was actually.
This was when we were, when Iwas an instructor.
There's a Facebook wife page,right, or army wives, whatever
it is right In that general area.
I know there's many of themother places, but there's a
Facebook page that'sspecifically for Grafenwoehrer,
for the wives, and this wifeparticularly.
(09:10):
I think she was a wife of astaff sergeant.
I remember either a sergeant ora staff sergeant, one of the
two, but it was an NCO, so sheslammed the command team.
Something happened, I can'tremember.
Something happened.
She slammed them on Facebookand less than a month later she
and the kids were eroded back tothe States.
(09:33):
So there are some things thatthere are different ways that we
need to approach them, and noteverything goes on social media.
I know for a while we would say, oh, facebook is fake, it's not
, it's not real life, whateverit is.
But when you put real lifethings on Facebook, then, um, or
(09:54):
on social media, then now itbecomes real life, right,
because someone is going toreact to it.
And sometimes we're at theshort end of the stick when we
get reacted to, because we're inthe military and we have
superiors and if you as a spouseand this is male, female spouse
(10:15):
you can say whatever you want,you're right, but you do have
kind of like a DOD ID number ora dependent ID number, so that
makes you kind of like a part ofthe military.
So you can't just say what youwant and not have repercussions,
and this happens to troopsevery single day.
All right, so, but I will saythat we've come when it comes to
(10:40):
social media.
We've come so far that the armyitself has a EA sports team and
social media influencers thatare in uniform who are trying to
bridge the gap, like betweenthe military life and civilian
understanding.
So this ultimately makesserving feel more like,
accessible to the general publicbut, most importantly, most
(11:03):
importantly, more relatable.
Do me a favor real fast, likesubscribe and hit that
notification bell.
Subscribe and hit thatnotification bell, um.
So next thing I want to say is,like one, one of the uh, most, I
guess the most profound shiftsthat came when service members
started using social media wasto document like in real time,
(11:25):
like real-time events like they.
They did a whole bunch of likehumanitarian efforts and active
conflicts like that, that thatwere being posted and um, and
there's like a recent case ofthat involved like deployed
people using the platforms tohighlight conditions that are on
, like in real-time conditionsthat they're on the ground, like
(11:47):
there and um, that kind of likeit.
It challenges like themainstream media, like the
narrative, and it gives, likethe world, an unfiltered look at
military operations, right, atwhat we're doing.
But I think the question isdoes um, does this help or does
(12:09):
this hurt, like the militaryitself, right, um, that's, I
think that's the debate that weneed to have, because I do
remember this one time we werein poland, right, and I
specifically remember they wereum, it was less than two hours.
(12:30):
We got on ground, we were intents at the time and we were
transient tents, but this turnedout to be our actual living
space because we it was twobrigades there, it was a brigade
from Colorado and then it wasus and we technically weren't
supposed to be there.
I'm not gonna lie, we got thereeither, yeah, cause the whole
time they were there.
So they started filming and Ithink it was on snapchat or
(12:53):
something they that they did itand if you don't turn off your
location, if you don't go ghost,people can see you.
So I think the s2 section, Ican't remember they they found
that, um, that clip of of ofthat soldier like showing our
living conditions, which weren'toptimal.
You, I'm not going to lie toyou, they weren't optimal and
(13:15):
they went straight down to them,right, and they were on a whole
different fob at the time.
But this happens more times thannot and people see that right,
and this puts out information tothe general public, to our
adversaries and to our families,and some people can get a
little worried.
(13:35):
But I think the net of it issocial media is changing the
military culture in fundamentalways, some better, some with
risk, because I don't want tosay for worse, but some have
risk.
It connects troops, it's an aidfor recruitment and at the same
time, it improves transparencyfor the public.
(13:58):
But it also poses securitythreats and raises the questions
about how the military shouldengage with an ever connected
world world, because that's whatwe're turning into.
So, but as the operationalenvironment evolves, so must our
understanding of that evolving,and policies around it.
(14:22):
We have to create policiesaround it.
Now I want to hear from you Doyou think social media is
ultimately a good or a bad thingfor the military?
Right?
So drop your thoughts andcomments and, if you found this
discussion insightful, check outone of my other videos that I
deep dive into the militaryculture.
(14:44):
I have a whole playlist.
And don't forget, you don'thave 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'mout.
Peace, roger Sarn.
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