Having to be deployed for months even years is very difficult for our troops and their families. Often times the only relief is the sound of a loved one’s voice, or the smile on their face, or the funniest moments captured on video. Web 2.0 capabilities/social media has enabled relationships to flourish in a new and exciting way. Many of our troops have come to rely on the emotional support provided through the use of these tools. The birth of a child is shared with a father in Iraq through YouTube; family and friends keep in touch with an 18yr old new recruit fresh out of high school through Face book; and the Wounded Warrior Diaries provides an opportunity for American service members wounded in combat to share stories of their experiences, including their hard-won battles on the road to recovery. Web 2.0 tools appear to be an amazing aid which provides relief, assists in healing, maintains connections in relationships, and promotes a sense of community even in the midst of the desert.
We want to examine the importance and relevance of Web 2.0 capabilities to Military families and get your view of its impact. We have three questions we would like to pose for discussion:
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
~ Tamie Lyles-Santiago (posted by Noel Dickover)
Q1: My boyfriend is deployed to Afghanistan. I just finished chatting with him over Facebook, so from my experience those tools are a critical necessity. Phone calls aren’t always an option, and email doesn’t have the same immediacy. Using chat on Facebook keeps us connected. His life is anything but easy right now, and some days that connection is what matters most. While social media isn’t the only option, it’s a very important one and we appreciate the concern with which DoD is approaching this.
Q2: Were social media tools not available to military members, I think the loss would be felt both by families and by those who are deployed. Without social media, I’d still be able to communicate with my Sailor. But he wouldn’t be able to stay connected to all those friends who, although they care about him, aren’t so close that they’re going to write weekly. Having access to Facebook, as one example of a social network, makes it easy for all his friends to send a quick word of support. I KNOW that matters a lot to him. He’s a reservist and he’ll be gone for a year. When he comes back, he’ll need those to reconnect with those friends to get back to normal and he worries that they won’t be there. Facebook helps ease that worry.
Q3: Primarily Facebook
Thanks for gathering this feedback, and opening up the conversation.
I hope you may find my input valuable. I retired in 2007 when social media was just beginning to boom. My last deployment was in 2003 and I would have done anything to use the social capabilities that exist today! I have a wife, a daughter, two parents, an aunt and several uncles who all commuicate now through social networks. In fact, I don’t think we’ve used “normal” email in several years. Of course, we didn’t have a choice in 2003. Everything had to go through the base email system or through GIMail (great service, by the way. Thanks ACC!). I now support the military mission as a contractor but we will be converted to Air Force civilians in the next year. I don’t know if my deployments are over so this is still an important topic for me, and for the thousands of airmen, sailors, soldiers, and marines headed into harm’s way every week. Let me get to the questions:
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
For me, these tools go far beyond useful, although “critical” is an awfully tough word to justify. One thing missing from email is the humor and emotional content that is available on social networks. I am an avid Facebook user (not so much MySpace) and sometimes my daughter can see that I am thinking about her when I send her a “gift” like a heart or a flower. Sure, they’re just icons, but how old does “I love ya” get? My wife has a very very hard time of dealing with my absence when I am deployed and email helped, but it isn’t the same as phone calls or some of the unique interactions you can get on Facebook, Flickr, or YouTube. A picture or funny message is worth more than a plain text email anyday!
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I don’t think they are presently in many Air Force locations, and I have no experience with other branches. The few Army bases I experienced allowed people to access webmail and a few blogs, but I still think the main social sites were denied. It’s a bit scary because your family and loved ones are still communicating every day on the sites that you are not permitted to visit. It’s not that it causes jealousy, but there is a parallel to having your spouse hanging out with all your friends when you’re away (which is what happens on Facebook and similar sites when you “disappear” for 6+ months). It’d be nice to be able to stop in and let everyone know you are there too. It’s hard to see the support when you aren’t online!
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
I don’t have the option to use any social media with anyone I know deployed because they are Air Force and the USAF has a very strict filtering. Given the choice, I would prefer Facebook because of the huge capabilities for gifting, photos, and wall posting.
I would like to summarize that I understand that there is a threat to OPSEC and security but that didn’t go away when the DOD started banning Facebook or other social sites. The phone and email still leak information by those who are not careful. I think this presents an opportunity to give new interactions with those back home while instituting such a program properly. I would recommend giving mobile site access only in the beginning – such as the text only view of Facebook – which would be much easier to monitor and be very easy on the bandwidth. If things progress smoothly, maybe test out some full access permissions. I would recommend that every deployed member sign a user agreement that explicitly states what they can do and cannot specific to social sites. Require certain security settings on the site (Facebook has very good granular settings, MySpace does not). Require that employement data on the profile remain generic to the home station or branch of service – not deployed locations. It isn’t rocket science.
Don’t punish everyone because of the mistakes made by a few people.
Also realize that many of these sites now offer news feeds and updates on many different groups and causes – I subscribe to USAA updates, USAF News, Combat Camera updates, and so on… I see tremendous potential for groups like home base news, hometown news, deployed base services (movie schedules, bands, etc), chow hall menus, etc…
Thanks for the opportunity to give some thoughts!
1. Keep the tools
I spent one year deployed to Iraq in ‘04-’05 and online communication tools (email, chat, etc) were absolutely essential for high morale. These tools were far more important than regular mail due to the immediacy and volume of communications. Since then, social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have become just as essential. Morale is critical to any mission.
2. It’s OK to ban status updates
If there is a concern about operational security, it is completely reasonable to ban public status updates on these networks, but private messaging should be authorized as long as email is authorized.
3. Authorize (and encourage!) Blogging
There was one soldier who ran a great blog during the deployment, and I believe he had to shut it down. Blogging has come a long way since then, and I believe that soldiers can do it responsibly without compromising security. All blogs should be disclosed to the chain of command just as a soldier must disclose additional employment that might conflict with his/her duties in uniform. A great blog can do wonders for recruiting and getting the authentic voice of the soldier across to foreign and domestic audiences.
4. Focus on Network Security
Rather than focusing on the tools, I’d suggest focusing on the network to minimize security risks. For example, soldiers could buy personal satellite connections from local Iraqi contractors. If these cannot be trusted for even sending emails, then that is a big concern. I do not know whether they are secure or not. I bet a lot has changed, and someone smart has probably looked into that problem years ago.
On the other hand, if all emails and “private” messages are able to be read by foreign companies because they are travelling through host-nation hardware, then we should replace those nodes with hardware from our allies rather than banning the tools.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I’m a Reservist and when I deploy, social media would make it much more useful to keep in touch with loved ones. In the past, it would take a long time to email info and photos to family and friends, but SM makes this much easier and a lot better for getting feedback from them as well, which provides a lot of encouragement and support when deployed.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
They would receive less information and digital photos from me since email is very cumbersome. Also, the emails I send them may consume more DoD bandwidth since I couldn’t just post them once on one site for everyone to download.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook (but also Picasa)
From a Sears Holdings standpoint, we hired over 5,000 veterans last year, and supported over 30,000 military families with a holiday gift, in addition to the rebuilding of wounded warriors’ homes. Social media allows us to reach those in need of employment and resources. It also provides a eSocial mentoring network through Facebook and Linkedin, as well as sites such as MyVetwork and Army.togetherweserved.com. I’m a huge proponent of eSocial networking! Cheers, Philip Dana – Go Navy, Beat Army!
As webmaster for the Army Family and MWR command website: ArmyMWR.com – I see web plus social media as bringing “normal” to a highly stressful time in a Soldier’s Family’s life. With Facebook and Twitter, a deployed Soldier has the opportunity to speak in relative-time to their friends and loved ones, without the limitations of real-time methods.
Imagine the words “heading to the hospital” as they are shared in text form vs. voice form. Could be a spouse going to deliver a baby, or a Soldier being med-evaced. In the face of reality, these words may never get through exept through the use of Social Media.
Keep it open, keep it safe, and keep it real.
As the mother of a soldier currently deployed in Afghanistan, we find the use of facebook priceless. With the time difference, he is able to give a brief message or leave an e-mail on his time, rather than staying up until all hours. When I get up in the morning I am able to see if he updated his post, letting me know that at least as of that time, he was OK. This lets me get started on my day without having the constant worry of “is he OK”. Many times we are able to use the IM feature to talk rather than him trying to get a phone line out and hoping we are home. He and his 13 year old brother have been able to chat on line, helping to keep that bond that they have.
This is our second deployment and the use of facebook this time around has made it easier for me to sleep at night, knowing that in the morning I will see a note form him, letting me know he is ok. The last deployment we would sometimes go 5 – 6 weeks without hearing form him, increasing the stress at home and making sleep difficult at best.
For the sanity of those deployed and their families and friends, please continue to allow the use of facebook by our soldiers.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. When my husband was deployed to Iraq we utilized facebook and myspace IM so that we could talk. Sometimes it was easier to get on a computer than it was for him to make a phone call. Without the capabilities of these websites and Instant messaging, communication between us would have been little. I know he kept in touch with most family via email to. I find it a necessity because it allowed us to maintain our relationship by some means. Phone calls are always great because you can hear their voice. But written word, it is just as important to let families know their loved ones are safe.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. If these capabilities were not allowed, I would have rarely been able to talk to my husband. He was gone 15 months. That is a long time with minimal communication. This type of communication gave my husband an outlet, kept him tied to home because I could so frequently discuss town news and everyday life with him. From a mental health stand point, this is extremly important to keep these communication lines available to our soldiers, so they still feel they have some form of constant normalcy. If these communications were taken away then families and soldiers lose that piece of normalcy making life after deployment an even harder adjustment.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. We used AOL IM and Myspace, as well as Hotmail and Facebook.
My son is on his second deployment. If it weren’t for the internet I think it would be so much harder for me to handle! I believe it also helps Soldiers mentally, if they can get away from it all, for even 30 min, to chat with family and friends.
My father was a Vietnam Vet and I remember those long, agonizing days my mother would wait to be able to hear anything from him.
Please don’t take this away from our Military and their families. This was a GOD send for me to be able to communicate with my son thru Facebook and Messenger. There were days I was able to help cheer him up on bad days and to remind him who he is!
I think there are times they need that personal contact just as much as we, at home, need it!
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. I think it is a great value! With the time differences, it is easier for a soldier to leave a note to let you know they are ok, what they need and just to say hi and i love you. I have alotof friends deployed right now and facebook is how we talk. Phone calls are sporadic and low quality at best, time delays so you are over talking each other, and again the time differences. Someone has to miss out on sleep to make a call and that is hazarous on both sides. Plus, for the families that are at home, sadly they are sometimes forgotten when it comes to unit functions. This way they know when something is happening and it is an open invite. Some units do not have an active family co-ordinator (My unit just got one a few months ago and i have been there for over a year.). This way rear det and family and the deployed soldier can all talk to each other and show support for each other.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. With no reliable way of talking, writing, leaving messages for family members. How do you intend to keep up the soldiers morale and the family members morale? I think it would lead to more BH cases, as fear of abandonment or loss of love will impact those abroad and home.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. Facebook and Fubar
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A: I do believe the Web 2.0/social media tools are critically necessary, though not all the time. For instance, my husband is currently in an active combat unit in Afghanistan. While I would love to be able to chat with him for hours a day like some military families are able to, his job certainly does not allow that kind of downtime, or computer time access. BUT, on the rare instances when he does log into his facebook or myspace it is a great to see the communication from him. His spirits are also lifted from seeing the comments of others wishing him well, and supporting him. He can see new pictures I have uploaded of our family, and this means a lot to him. Pictures and words of encouragment are something he can receive in a matter of an instant via facebook/myspace. Something he would not be able to access by phone or letter for longer periods of time. If I happen to be online at the same time (which is always pretty likely) I love being able to chat with him. The web 2.0 ability should not be taken away from any soldier, but abuse of it does need to be curbed. Time limits should be established, and each soldier should have access at least on a weekly basis. As long as the access is fair for all soldiers, regardless of placement in theater, or MOS, then I see no reason to eliminate it.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A: Significant. For me personally, it would not hinder our main form of communication, but again, this comes back to the unfairness he, and others in his unit/MOS receive based on their jobs. Due to the fact he is unable for weeks at a time to access a computer, when he finally does get to the facebook and myspace communication becomes priceless to him. It’s a treat to check and see from his family and friends. BUT, there are plenty of other soldiers who are able to access facebook/myspace/skype/e-mail on a daily basis. This puts soldiers like my husband between a rock and a hard place. Who is he to say that a soldier is getting better treatment because his job allows him to access a computer at all times? He wouldn’t, but I am sure he and many others are thinking it. I would not be surprised if those families able to use social mediums as an everyday form of commucation have lower divorce rates, and need less counseling when the soldier returns home, etc. They are better connected, and in a year long deployment defined by seperation, every little bit of connection to the outside world, and your loved one counts. Sadly, until it can become a a FAIR AND EVEN form of communication it will continue to play a significant role in military families lives, and none in others.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A: E-mail and myspace.
Q1. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I have been fortunate enough to not have to go through any of my boyfriend’s deployments, as he was married to his ex for them both, but when we met he lived 2 hours away, did a lot of volunteering for his Guard Unit for schools that required him to travel for a few weeks at a time, and we DEPENDED on MySpace because we could never seem to get schedules to match up to actually have phone calls for more than 15 minutes. When I wasn’t in the middle of a college quarter I’d stay at his house and we’d use MySpace for him to tell me when he was going to be at a spot long enough for me to take him lunch, because cellular service where we were didn’t even allow for texting to go through half the time.
I wouldn’t quite classify it as ‘critical’ because obviously, there are other ways to get in contact with each other, but a necessity, yes. Having friends that were deployed sometimes it’s just a sigh of relief when, yes, you missed them because they were online two hours ago, but you know they are ok, because they were online two hours ago. Really it brings the same benefits as having phones did to the soldiers who got to experience them first. Now that we have moved from landlines to cell phones to social media, they’re more the ‘norm’ of communication and what we’re used to. The forced transition from, being able to use them at home, to not being able to use them at all, I’d guess would be quite like the uncomfortable and apprehensive feeling that most people have about being forced to use new technology that they’re unfamiliar with. They want to use what they know and what they’re comfortable with, because having those ‘creature comforts’ from home makes things that much more bearable. Though to some people it may seem like an extreme example, going without things like running water during a deployment is a shock to your system. It’s something that’s just…there when you’re at home. You come to rely on it’s consistency and stability. Social media and social networking have become staples of every day life like that, and suddenly going without them and losing a lot of other connection mediums at the same time can be very harsh.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I think it would be the same impact as if social media were to disappear all together. People use them to stay in touch with people because they don’t have to get hold of them at ‘decent’ hours. You can leave a message on someone’s profile at 2am, just to let them know you’re thinking about them, but if you happen to catch them online, or plan to be online together, you can actually have some degree of interaction. Sometimes phone calls just aren’t possible, because it’s such dedicated time. With instant messaging you can stop for a moment if you need to step away for whatever reason and not have someone hanging on to a phone receiver, patiently waiting, doing nothing, while you get back to them. The connectedness that we are used to will damage people’s morale if it’s taken away from them in a difficult situation where they really NEED that connectedness. Talking to my family in Missouri on Facebook is a convenience. My boyfriend knowing that I’m here, on Facebook and MySpace, and so are his parents and his friends, could really be that thing that keeps him sane when he’s having a hard time, should he have to deploy again.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
I use whatever they’re on. Most of the people I communicate with have both Myspace and Facebook, but it seems that Facebook gets used more because of it’s features and capabilities.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I am a mother of four children all left at home with my husband who is at least a two day trip from any family members. While we consider many of the friends we have made in the military and in the towns we live, family, there is nothing that replaces the reassuring words or support given from a parent to their child. My oldest son and youngest daughter are very connected to me, they like to share private moments, successes, and frustrations with me. They share with their dad, but prefer to hear from me; whereas my other son and daughter prefer their dad. Through Yahoo IM, Magic Jack, and email I am able to share those precious moments with my children and still talk to them about their experiences. My youngest (5) is always in a better mood and less mopey when she has even two minutes of time with me on the web cam.
I would agree that it is a useful addition to our communication capabilities, but it goes beyond that. In this globally connected, interactive world we live in today, these tools are not only vital to family survival during multiple deployments and family separation but critical to Soldier moral and mental health. As a parent, being separated from your children takes a toll on you mentally as you question your decision to remain in the military and spend so much time away from them, especially today for parents who are on their third or fourth deployment.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
With the multiple deployments and high optempo when home between deployments I truly believe you would see a marked increase in military divorce rates, increased spousal abuse problems and increased Soldier suicides during separation from their loved ones. Sometimes just seeing a loved one or hearing your child laugh through a service like Yahoo, which is much more affordable than most overseas phone plans, can brighten a parent’s day or bring some perspective to a bad day. Everyone has a different story to tell and experiences different operational deployments while deployed or overseas, it is not enough to simply take a few peoples story and clearly understand the extent to which people use social media to enhance their lives and communicate with loved ones.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
When communicating with my husband and children I rely on Yahoo IM, Magic Jack, and Facebook, along with email. All of these provide opportunities for me to talk, see, and hear my family or receive a message about their day. Facebook is our primary means for sharing photos with one another. I have talked with other families who prefer Skype, Flckr, and YouTube. Each providing a variety of services to deployed Soldiers for communicating with their families, establishing family traditions, and still being a part of their families lives by sharing a bedtime story or telling jokes on a web feed with their children.
If we conduct annual training on the responsible usage of social media our Soldiers and their families are informed and educated about responsible and healthy usage of social media. The capability exists and people are using it, so lets educate them and teach them how to use it responsibly.
Social Networking sites ease the minds of all soldiers and families and provide real time interactions due to the instantaneous responses via the online correspondance through email, social network chatting, and video chatting. Soldiers and families do not have to wait for mail which could take weeks. Photos and stories are shared easily and help soldiers feel as though their family and friends are more accessible. Soldiers are able to cope a little better with the uninterrupted socializing through the online world and see and feel as though they are still able to function as part of their family although thousands of miles away. Also, i’m sure my soldier would rather be accessing and posting photos on one central site than accessing multiple and sending multiple emails which are bandwith restricted.
Personally my soldier and I spend more time chatting on Facebook etc. than we do on the telephone, he loves being able to talk about the bad day he’s had and is relieved to see my responses in real time not have to wait and hear about my days after weeks have passed. I love sending and getting photos and funny videos from him, and am able to really feel as though he is accessible even though he’s deployed.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. These tools are not a critical necessity, but they are very close. During my last deployment I used MSN and Yahoo messenger to communicate with my family via IM, webcam and phone. There are no other tools that would have afforded us the opportunity to keep in touch so closely and regularly. Now that I have started using facebook, it gives me the ability to keep in touch with friends as well as my immediate family. I can keep some kind of relationship going, without having to go through the trouble of writing an email.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. It would significantly reduce the quality of quantity of the communication with family and friends.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. Facebook.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
My fiance is deployed right now and we use social networking sites quite a bit to keep in touch. Not only do we send each other messages, but that is how we share pictures and update each other on the small, everyday life stuff. I would consider it more a necessity then a nice option. I don’t like emailing him cause he is more likely to check his Myspace page then his email. That way, he can catch up with several people at once instead of waiting for people to email him (he keeps in touch with most of his friends and family on Myspace.) Our FRG and the Troop also have Myspace pages. That is where I find out about meetings and other events also. I also use these sites to keep in contact with other army wives, especially those who have moved home while their husband is deployed.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Personally, it would cut down on our communication a lot. I understand some security concerns, but the soldiers and families have been briefed about what is appropriate to share online and what is not. If it is a private concern, we use email.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Myspace, but I also get updates and pictures through the unit’s Facebook also. I am trying to get my soldier to sign up for Facebook too!
Q. I find the social media tools to be a necessity when a loved one is deployed. We have a squadron facebook page and the soldiers in Iraq use it to stay connected not only with their spouse but with what is happening back home with the unit, they get to see their wife participating in events on post, and the wives get to see photos of their husbands in iraq, it makes them seem just that much closer.
Q. The biggest impact I see to families/loved ones is that the families wouldn’t know as much about what is going on with their soldier. We post pictures of the soldiers in Iraq on our Facebook page and the commander’s in Iraq post a monthly letter to the families letting them know what is happening over there, the social media allows us to reach many more family members than the traditional FRG can connect to. We have Facebook fans that are brothers, uncles, parents, grandparents or best friends, that can log on and find out what their loved one is doing in Iraq.
Q. We use Facebook.
I believe that it helps are soldiers when they’re deployed and it also helps us family members who are left behind, its great to hear from each other instead of a soldier waiting long to use a phone or us waiting for that letter to see how they are doing and when at war if they’re safe.My soldier who now was deployed to Afghanistan 4 months ago and still there, he loves taking what little free time he gets to chat to us back here in the states, just to talk about things new at home.He doesn’t like to talk much about where he is at,so yes networking is a good thing for deployed soldiers it helps them take their minds off of the war for a short time only when they get a very short break to be on here and i believe it helps them mental and emotional wise, they need that!!
Thanks
Army Mom Jane and god bless our soldiers
Q1. The impact of social media is a strong one. For me, seeing surprise photos and updates of my husband’s unit has been very uplifting. I would hate to see this taken away from myself and other spouses. My husband will miss the birth of our first grandchild in person, but with mediums such as Facebook, he will see photos almost immediately. The ability to share and participate? You can’t put a value on that.
Q2. Servicemembers and spouses survived deployments for many, many years before the internet. But I can’t imagine not having it now. Not only am I contacted with my husband, but also his unit, his FRG, his post…. everything. And having a limited budget, phone cards can get expensive, yet Skype, and services like it, are free. I get to see his face and hear his voice.
Q3. We use Facebook and Skype for almost all of our communication.
I was able to locate some other Military families through Facebook and it’s been helping me to get through my husband being gone for his 5 month training!
I think the basis of these questions is flawed; of course it’s better for Families to have social tools compared to not having these social tools. However, why do we have to use these specific tools?
While I would never suggest that the government can do social networking better then commercial sites
I would suggest that it is possible for the government to create a viable alternative that 1) Does not risk network exposure like Facebook or Myspace, 2) Does not depend on sites like Facebook to keep being successfull in order to fulfill a critical mission requirement, and 3) Can be tailored to the specific needs of military Families, particularly with deployed Family members.
We started down the right track with armyfrg.org, but the site is so difficult to use that many Families are abandoning it in favor of the ease of Facebook…I would like to see the Army re-engage in tools like this rather then writing off an important function to commercial sites that can not be depended on.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I don’t think the benefits can be understated. The elongation of these conflicts and the aggressive deployment schedule is taking a toll on marraiges, families, relationships. Web 2.0/Social Media provides a level of connection that is critical in supporting family relationships that, as Mrs. Casey observed, “are the most brittle part of the force.” To remove this connection will greatly impact relationships, quality of life and mission readiness.
I am involved in new media, using it to support military spouses…from my experience this is NOT a ‘useful addition’. It is now CRITICAL to families to keep in touch and foster/maintain a relationship.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Consider that the average service member today has deployed (been gone from the family) 2 times the length of time of the average WWII vet. And, there is no end in the forseeable future. The toll this has taken on families is severe. War weariness is impacting many, many military spouses. The ability to connect with our service member via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other Web 2.0/new/social media mediums is key to supporting relationships that are already stretched thin. Removing this ability to connect? I believe it is natural to think we will see a rise in broken relationships. It will be a ‘double whammy’: 1) removal of the medium will have a negative impact in and of itself on morale on the homefront and 2) less connection will impact the quality of relationship…this impacting readiness.
I realize OPSEC must be considered and of course is a top priority. However I believe we have the technology and can educate both service members and spouses in responsible use of new media to protect our troops while providing VITAL connection for service members and the loved ones left behind.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
I am a Navy spouse. Naval communications aboard ships are already restricted due to technology needs of the ship (i.e. bandwidth, OPSEC, etc.). When he has been deployed on a ship I am relegated to an email when bandwidth provides and phone calls from port calls. Occasionally a call underway. May I mention at this time that the Navy has the highest divorce rate among enlisted (Seattle PI, 2007). I work predominantly with Navy Spouses and National Guard Spouses. The difference communications levels make between these two groups is stark. To take away the connection the Guard, Army, Air Force and Marines have enjoyed till now will have a most negative impact on families whose deployments are much longer than the average Navy deployment.
There is another aspect of Web 2.0/New Media/Social Media that I would love to see the DoD more fully exploit in terms of family support programs. This generation of war figher (and their families) live on the internet. They turn to the internet for connection (with family/service members and other spouses), information, resources, and entertainment and formal education. Family support programs may be missing an opportunity to develop “youtube” courses, downloadable checklists, interactive forums and much more. Thinking beyond the Family Support Center can bring additional support, resources and reliable information to families and service members who are remotely located or not likely to walk into the local center for whatever reason. The rise of internet talk shows, spouse initiated forums, eZines and other new media/web 2.0/social media outlets is evidence this generation prefers to connect, learn, share on the internet. Let’s bring MC&FP beyond the static website and into web 2.0 with family programs.
Good questions. My stepson completed a 15 month deployment this past January.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. It was a critical necessity for our family, and for our deployed soldier, to use the social media tools. For us, because of the time difference, sometimes it was just enough to be able to see the last time that he had logged in and know that he was ok at that time. For him, it was a morale boost to be able to stay in touch with family and friends.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
More stress and more worry, on Both sides, but our primary concern would be for the deployed loved one’s mental state and morale…..while the contact was important to both sides, we think it was actually more important for our deployed soldier because it kept him from feeling forgotten and isolated.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We used MySpace and AOL IM.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
As several other people have noted, one of the benefits of social media tools is immediacy, as opposed to email, blogs and web photo albums. Another benefit is the aggregation of my wife’s entire circle of family and friends. She can write one note or status message and reach EVERYONE she wants to be in touch with immediately. Among our family and friends, many of them ONLY share their photos, videos and daily goings-on via Facebook; if we’re not on Facebook, we’re really not in touch with them. Web 2.0 media have completely replaced email among most of our family.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
If it were not available, my wife would no longer hear from many extended family and friends. Sad but true, many of them simply don’t have or can’t make the time to communicate with her directly. When she has Facebook available, she’s as close to our loved ones as if she’s still in the states; without it, she would be cut off.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook. To a lesser degree, Twitter.
I’d also like to refer you to a blog post I wrote on this topic, titled “How Twitter makes me a better military spouse.” http://bigdaddyavelis.blogspot.com/2009/03/twitter-makes-me-better-military-spouse.html
Thank you for allowing our input.
Q1: Think of social media sites as the “Common Operating Picture” for friends and family. While separated by time zone and space, friends and family can keep up in real time or in “shifted time” with what is going on people’s lives via text, images, video, and audio. For the deployed service member the value is they can quickly scan their list of friends/family and have an idea of what is going on so that the next email, chat, or phone call is more pointed, more relevant, and more connected.
Q2: The consequences of NOT having easy access to social networking sites will be greater isolation of the deployed service-members from family and friends. With repeated deployments, the strains on relationships are cumulative, and as time goes on and more and more people come to integrate social media into their daily lives the loss of it will be more keenly felt.
Q3: Facebook and Jabber Instant Messaging.
i have children in the Military and i have found this to be the best thing ever, specially when they are in the sand box. I hope and pray they dont take it away from me. Its the best thing since the telephone was invented. and since they have to take turns on the phone and only have 30 min at a time. This is the best. Concerned Mom is KY
I have two brothers at West Point, and 3 cousins on both sides of my family who have been deployed at least 2x each. Social Networking sites such as Facebook allow us to to chat, and email with each other, view photos, and otherwise know how we are doing even when we’re 7000 miles apart. Please continue to allow these sites, and further encourage their usage in appropriate off hours by the Military. We civilians depend on them.
So, in answering your questions:
1) Very dependent. It’s convenience for both those deployed and their loved ones. Using these sites are considered routine, everyday behavior. It allows the deployed to feel as if they’re happy and back at home. And we civilians loves them as it allows us to know our soldiers are safe. If it is not critical in the strictest sense of the word, then social networking sites are extremely important.
2) Without these sites, we would be limited to very short phone calls or the occassion email for the majority of our communications, and the loss would be dearly felt. You said it yourself when you wrote they were “amazing aid which provides relief, assists in healing, maintains connections in relationships, and promotes a sense of community even in the midst of the desert”.
3) Facebook. For what it’s worth, I’m also a “Fan” on many pro-military and pro-Army facebook pages, so it’s a Win-Win for all parties.
Thank you taking the time to read my response. I hope I have helped your analysis in some way.
Sincerely,
Lauren Ziegler
GO USMA Class of 2010, and 2013!!
GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY!!
My son is deployed in Afghanistan. Being able to stay in some sort of contact with him (primarily facebook) keeps me more aware of his needs, ways I can help, how to be supportive and involved. As far as I am concerned this is such a huge advantage. Things have been very difficult for my son (the loss of friends and a loved one) but being able to stay in touch has been a lifeline. I am so thankful for this opportunity.
My boyfriend is currently in Iraq. This is our first deployment together, so for me this has been a very new, very difficult experience. The time difference has been especially challenging since I am in college and work part-time at night. My schedule is always changing, and through facebook, I can quickly update him on when I have downtime and whether plans change. Also, I don’t know many other army girlfriends. Through the fan page, I can chat with girlfriends, fiancees, wives, mothers, etc. of soldiers who are going through the same thing, and I have been able to see how he and his brigade are helping the people in Iraq. The fan page has been crucial to helping me get through this deployment. It offers the support I don’t receive in my area.
Furthermore, my boyfriend is always asking for pictures and updates of what’s going on in my life. I think it helps him to overcome the feeling of disconnection since we don’t get to talk on the phone much anymore. My friends and I can post pictures of what we are doing day-to-day, so he can stay updated. If not for facebook, skype, and yahoo messenger, I would be lost during this deployment. They help him to help me deal with all these new feelings I am having since we can’t be together or communicate by phone. I think for us it is definitely a critical necessity. There are times when I won’t hear from him for two weeks or much longer, but through facebook he can just log on and leave me an “i’m okay” message very quickly. And since I check facebook often, I know almost immediately that he’s alright. And if he can’t get on facebook, his brigade always has some kind of reassuring post to keep me going and let me know that they are carrying on and staying strong.
I think that social media tools are essential to the well-being of military families and the morale of the deployed military members. The tools we use most are Facebook, Skype, and Yahoo! Messenger. Social media technology will continue to develop, and I just pray that the military doesn’t get left behind because of security concerns. While I acknowledge the importance of security, I know there is a happy medium which can be found with a little research.
Having the modern conveniences of communication is so much better than even a year ago. My son was deployed with the surge and we didn’t know how, where, when he was. They had a specific thing happen within their unit and he FRG advised us of this issue. I stayed up until 2:30 am waiting for him to get online so I could see if he was ok. Even though he couldn’t give details it was important for us to make that connection. If we’d had to wait for mail or for him to connect by phone it would have been agony for us his parents and for him. Also the mother of another soldier and I were able to connect and check on each others sons. My husband is retired military. The stress level is like the difference in night and day knowing that a connection is possible.
My mother is deployed for her second tour in the current war. The first time happened to coincide with my first year in college. That year, social networking wasn’t nearly as common as it was now, and so we didn’t get much opportunity to communicate. Since she worked the night shift, she would call me after my classes ended for the day, and would then spend time talking to my little sisters, who were living with their father and stepmother at the time.
This time, my sisters are much older, and more sensitive to her deployment. She works days and is extremely busy with her new position, so we don’t have nearly as many opportunities to talk as we once did. Since she has internet access, though, it’s not infrequent that we’ll catch up on Skype or Facebook. With skype, she can not only chat regularly, but we can have a real time video conversation. This lightens her spirits significantly, since she can see that we’re doing well and can cope with missing us more. It helps us as well, because it gives my sisters something to see that our mom’s doing okay now. On facebook, my mom can keep track of my various endeavors, especially as I go through the stress of applying to medical school. Many of these things are passing comments that I don’t think about when I actually talk to her, so it gives her much more insight into my life and helps her feel connected to us even when she’s on the other side of the world. Since she doesn’t have the time to talk to us on the phone as much this tour, social networking is vital to both her sanity, as well as her children’s.
1. I believe letting military personnel use social networking tools via the internet gives a great boost to morale. Sometimes it is nice to sit back and relax for 10 minutes and catch up on what your friends and loved ones are doing near, or far. For example while my husband was deployed he took his own personal computer and whenever he had down time he was able to use whatever internet sites he wished. While he was deployed he had requested to be friends with me over one of the social networking sites. I was going to college in his home town and he thought it would be fun to meet someone new. Over the last 9 months that he was deployed we were able to chat every now and then and get to know each other. After he finished his deployment and was able to come back to his home town for a break we met in person. We have been together ever since, married over 2 years and have a son who will be turning 1 in the next few weeks. Currently my husband is away for training and we have been using Skype to chat (using personal computers). Using this feature has made the days alot more tolerable than before. Our son loves seeing his daddy every day and for some reason it makes me feel so much better, and more connected to him than before we started using it. I really feel that even though security might be an issue, it is more than worth it to help our soldiers feel more connected to their families while enduring such hardships. As funny as it sounds, something so small as that goes along ways with relationships back home. I believe it could make or break some people.
2. I think that NOT allowing military members to use these services can really hinder their relationships with loved ones, also wear down on them personally. Nothing is better than getting to say a quick hello to your loved ones. A little bit can really go along way, for both parties; especially when going through a deployment.
3. My husband and I met via Myspace while he was deployed from Sept 2005-2006 (embarassing I know), and we currently use facebook and hotmail to send quick messages or share pictures; but mostly use Skype for telephone services and webcam chats.
I’m a facebook fan. Our brigade’s facebook page has over 2000 fans, the FRG page another 500 and several of our subordinate units have their own pages now. Social networking provides us an exceptional ability to stay connected with families that many of our Soldiers have separated from multiple times. Moreover, it is an outstanding way for our soldiers to tell their stories like no one else can to a public that rarely sees the “inside” of military operations without a MSM spin.
I believe that technology is vital in keeping the moral of soldiers and families up during deployment. It is important to me to have a way to let my son know how we are and also for him to keep in touch. We have a split family and social sites help us all feel closer to him. I also have a BLOG for friends and family. It is a great way to share his emails and pics so we can let many folks know how he is. Also if he needs things and I post a list many people can see it. The Army info from the websites are also valuable and I post helpful info, newsletters and maps.
I believe the more families and friends are in contact the better it is for the support from home across the nation. Facebook has great fan sites and pages dedicated to the support of the troops and their families.
As a Veteran of the Navy in the days before home computers or wireless phones, I can tell you that waiting for weeks while your letters from home are routed through an FPO and then placed on a supply ship or aircraft carrier for delivery at sea was a long and sometimes lonesome wait. My Destroyer was part of an ASW Hunter/Killer squadron and our location was not always known to the FPO in NY. We could be in any part of the Atlantic Ocean and sometimes engaged with a contact and mail delivery was placed low on the priority list.
These new methods of contact with family and friends are a great way to keep the morale up in the Sandbox or any other foreign duty station. I admit that security is a big concern and has to be monitored but it was a concern in my day. Our letters home were subject to censorship and more than once a letter would arrive stateside, looking like a lace doily. We also were subject to censorship if we made a phone call from the booths provided on the piers when we docked. We were told to be careful who we told what when we were on liberty in any port, foreign or stateside.
Groups like Soldiers’ Angels are instructed on what to include or not include in any messages to the troops in the Sandbox. Ask any service person that receives emails from an Angel, how important they are to him or her. Sometimes, they are the only contact they have with someone back in the states.
Lets expand these services to all of our Armed Forces and educate both the troops and the people ” back home” on what to say or not to say. I can relate to the loneliness of our troops who do not have them. Loneliness is the worse enemy of the morale of our fighting men and women.
Facebook is probably the best social sites on the web today and if our troops use it to keep in touch, it is easy to monitor. I have seen very few of it’s members who openly oppose the war, or the troops fighting it. If someone does start spouting off, the other members will usually shout him or her down.
My husband is in Afghanistan, and his elderly parents (in their 80’s) enjoy using Skype to visit with him.
I know that some soldiers and their families make great use of Facebook, although my husband and I don’t use it.
I am grateful that we have email for staying in touch.
When my husband first deployed to Iraq in 2002 we used chat with webcam alot. This allowed our son then aged 2 1/2 the chance to see Daddy and communicate with him. For the longest time he was convinced his Daddy lived in the computer. It also allowed my husband to watch our newborn baby grow up and regularily hear his cries. The interaction that the social networking sites allow the soldiers and the families are of utmost importance–it makes the seperation a little bit easier by allowing the soldier a glimpse into the daily happenings at home. I believe it is important for keeping up high moral at both ends. We are again facing a deployment and are hoping to be able to maintain contact through Facebook, Yahoo Messenger, and Skype.
Q. 1
I find these media tools a critical necessity. During my husband deployment to Iraq these media networks were how we stayed connected with one another. The phones were not always available and then having to have phone cards on hand and stand in line to use a phone just wasn’t the best or easiest thing. I know for our guys after a mission they were tired and ready to relax. They could just get on their computer and use either skype, myspace or facebook and that is how we all kept in touch with our soldiers. I think if you take this away that it will put a damper on the lines of communication between a soldier and his family.
Q. 2
I think it would have a tremendous impact to not only the families but the soldiers too. The families even if they can’t hear their soldier voice over the phone want to feel a part of there soldiers life even during a deployment. This is a network that the soldiers can comment on their day and post pictures of their “home away form home” For some families it is the only thing that makes them feel like they are actually a part of this period of time in their soldier’s life and keeps them connected. From a personal experience I loved it when my husband would post picture on his myspace or facebook. Especially pictures of him and the guys smiling and all. I just reminded me that my husband was proud to be a soldier and was really enjoying serving his country. It also let me see pictures of him so I knew in my heart he was okay. I think if the soldier’s have this taken away from them it will not only hurt the familes back home but the soldiers too. Seeing pictures posted on myspace or facebook of events and milestones in their family’s life and children’s life helps to cheer them up and keep them going. If you’re a soldier I know you can relate to this; missing your first anniversary, the birth of your child or their first birthday, their first steps or words. These are things you will never get back and something that each solder want to feel like they are a part of. Pictures and videos posted on these media sites are the only way some of the soldiers can see these things. I think as much as we want to know and see that they are okay they worry about us to and want to know that we are okay and are missing them too!
Q. 3
During my husbands deployment we stayed in touch using the social medias Skype and Myspace.
I use Facebook and Myspace to connect to all of my family and friends, also all my military co-workers friends. My family uses it to share pictures with me that are to big to send over email. We also use the chat feature,it live and private with Family. Please keep Facebook and Myspace open for the Troops and there Familys.
I am a Retired Soldier who is married to an Active Soldier. Back in 2006, during my last deployment I was introduced to MySpace and MSN Messenger. I was fortunate that we had internet connections that were not regulated by the MWR or DOD and we were able to connect to home much more easily. My wife is returning now from her deployment to Iraq where many time we would try to connect through the AKO video or messenger and the bandwidth lag was horrible. We became dependent on programs such as MySpace, Facebook, and Yahoo Chat to ease our communications. We stayed in touch almost every day. I believe that the DOD should not only allow these programs but should support any effort the technologies have that will allow the deployed Soldier, Airman, Sailor, or Marine to more effectively communicate back home. It is a vital part of the military family to keep communications open back home. It’s simple well being.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Phone calls do not offer privacy, the lags are annoying, so is the time limit. We are a dual-military family and even though internet is slow, it offers us a sense of privacy and a way to share things like pictures. When deployed, we cannot contact extended family or friends because we use our entire 10-minute morale call on our spouse or our kids… our parents get left out unless it’s their birthday or a holiday. I would call it critical. In fact, I would recommend improving internet accessability and reducing phone line availability.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
It would be like previous wars where one could wait weeks or months to receive snail mail. Or worse, my mom and dad met when my mom was 14 and my dad was 18. He was headed to vietnam with her older brother. My dad liked her and mailed her letters saying so. She never received the letters that my dad sent to her. He thought she didn’t like him. They almost didn’t get together because of that. Communication is one of the most basic and essential emotional needs that a human has. Lack of communication seriously affects morale, emotional wellness and even mental wellness.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
During the last deployment we had just started using Facebook – which we love. Prior to that, we used MSN chat or yahoo chat.
I agree that for the sake of safety and security, it is best to not share too much, especially your deployed location details. But for the most part, I definitely think members should have the ability to access social sites in order to communicate with those they care about. These sites do have privacy options and one does not have to let the whole world see their profile – they can limit it to only those people who they have added to their ‘friend list’.
Q1. Extremely valuable. I keep in contact with my son. I feel that it is critically necessary. He needs our support from home and to feel connected. Plenty of times he has not been able to use the phone and we constantly get disconnected when he does. It is so much easier to hop online and chat. Sometimes I don’t think that he would’ve made it through the day emotionally without being able to just chat with his family.
Q2. I feel it would be much more difficult to endure. It puts my anxieties to rest being able to talk to him several times a week. It also allows him to still feel part of our family and not that he’s been forgotten. I’m sure that he knows that, but it really helps to be able to reach out.
Q3. Skype, yahoo email, my space – Skype is our preferred.
Thank you for the opportunity to allow us to have input. I would also like if the unit would get on with the use of Web 2.0 capabilities to just post things on facebook or twitter. It would help us to feel more connected there. The only thing we have is the FRG meetings which are Sunday when I can not attend. Even just updates on what went on at the FRG meetings…something to make us feel connected. I’m more connected with my soldier than I am with the unit that is less than 10 miles from me. Just a suggestion.
You have answered the question for yourselves.
The e-mail message “Seeking Feedback from Servicemembers and Families on Internet Policy” requesting input on the use of technology and social media sites goes on to say that Facebook and Twitter were being used to gather the feedback. There’s nothing else to say.
Facebook has provided our family a great way to stay connected during my son’s deployment. Since his family members live in various states we can all see photos and post our love and support for him. I believe it is good for morale for all concerned.
These social media tools should remain available to our military!
Because of the time difference and the DoD systems, I can’t be at home to be on Facebook or MySpace to talk to love ones and Friends who are serving. I can only be at work which is a DoD regulated computer. These sites are blocked and therefore I can’t do anything until I get home. i understand that with the security risk that comes with it, but there are enough high tech security software that will help with these issues. It’s not like we would stay on facebook our entire work day, just long enough to check up on them see how they are doing
Q1: I think I communicate with loved ones more using facebook then any other media form …its the main means for my family to keep up to date with things going on as well as deconfliciting things. It is a huge family support tool.
Q2: I think it would make it a lot more difficult to give soldiers a chance to see what is going on with family members on a regular basis and the cost factor of savings to the soldiers is fantastic. Real morale breaker to lose Facebook apps.
Q3: Facebook and MSN messenger.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
- The value and benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with loved ones who are deployed are immeasurable. It is an absolute critical necessity in that it allows the Soldier to stay in contact with an unlimited number of family and friends while he is deployed. Without these tools it would be virtually impossible for the Soldier to stay as connected to his social networks. As opposed to a phone call, the Soldier can update many people at one time. As opposed to e-mail, the communication is only one way from the Soldier.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
- One thing I have learned from Soldiers is that they will find a way to get the tools they need. Making social media tools unavailable to Soldiers while overseas would do two things; 1. Disrupt morale amongst deployed units, especially ones that are currently using these tools and then get cut off. I believe this prohibition would be counter-productive and a foolish move by the military. 2. It would increase the number of Soldiers purchasing their own cell phones with international calling and data plans. This would cause additional financial strain on Soldiers and their families as well as cause phone banks and computer stations to sit unused because Soldiers are on their own personal cell phones updating their facebook status instead of using DOD approved stations. I don’t understand how in every other war the United States won in part by using superior equipment and innovative technology yet somehow in this war, where public opinion and perception of events is so critical, the military wants to crawl in a cave and allow our enemies to dominate cyberspace with false propaganda and massive PR campaigns. We are told in the Army to “tell our story” but now the military is looking at taking away one of the most effective tools we have to tell our story. Social media such as facebook, myspace, and twitter are very effificient tools to get the word out about the military and what we are doing.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
- I have not been deployed since social media has become as big an industry as it is. I do, however, use facebook extensively while I am in CONUS. It’s a great way for me to update my family and friends on the training we are receiving and how the military is preparing us for our upcoming deployment. Often times I post pictures from those training events on my page. It’s been a great tool for me to generate support for my unit and our upcoming deployment. I have almost 300 friends on facebook, for me to catch everyone one of those friends up on what I’ve been up to would be impossible without facebook and/or other social media tools. If the Army truly wants us to “tell our story” then social media is the fastest and most effective way to allow us to do that.
I do understand there are OPSEC concerns with social media but I think these risks can be mitigated by focused and deliberate training on OPSEC in the blogosphere. No Soldier desires to give away useful information to the enemy, they just need to know what not to say. With an aggressive OPSEC training regimen, I think social media can be used by Soldiers with no more OPSEC violations than any other type of communication media.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. Critical necessity is my opinion. I work with the families. Social Media has made it easier to receive information of needs of our deployed and their families because the military is blocking some emails that are sent. For example, my gmail account will not go through the RCAS system for the Army. If a deployed service member or their family needs assistance, they can use the social media to send a message that my personal blackberry informs me is there no matter the time, and we do not have to worry about the email address being blocked by the military or taking several hours to be delivered.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. The impact would be significant. The instaneous contact and posting of pictures that are provided is the reason Service Members and their Families survive the deployment. When my son was deployed, my grandson being able to see the pictures as soon as available of where my son was made the grandson still feel like he was part of my sons life and vice versa with us posting the grandsons sport and holiday pictures. I do believe there should be a temporary block on all forms of contact military email/phones, personal email/phones, and social media until Family Members are notified of the causalty.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. Skype, Facebook, and email
I’ve had one son deploy and Myspace was invaluable for sharing pictures of what was going on at home. My other is son is getting ready to deploy and our plan was to use Facebook. As someone said before, phone calls weren’t always easy to get thru, or the lines would be down or the calls dropped. Internet was slow at trying to download pictures but he could pull them up on Myspace faster and then just save what he wanted rather than download a ton of picture and video. My son who is getting to deploy next month our plan was to do the same with Facebook. We used Yahoo Messenger and the chat features with Myspace and Facebook alot. It was also nice because we could leave messages for on another and I could get it even when out running errands on my phone and answer him quickly. We kept AIM up at all times in our house so when he had a chance to be on he could hit us up and someone was there to answer.
Without the social networking tools, the immediate communication will be lost unless they can get a call thru and there isn’t always time to stand in a line and wait to use the phone. The nice thing is they can go to any base or outpost that has internet and get a quick message thru to say “hey I’m ok” when on a long mission or they aren’t back when expected due to problems. I also know of other families that would use the video feature on different messaging software to see their children. I would say there isn’t even a word for the peace of mind it gives parents, spouses, etc to be able to have almost immediate contact with their soldier and Marine.
My sons’ safety is the most important thing in the world to me but let’s face it, there is no sure fire way to stop leaks. Even with phone and snail mail those can be tapped and intercepted. There is enough technology out there that there should be some way to keep things safe. I think it’s important for our soldiers to as well to have that connection to home….especially after a hard mission.
My husband just returned from Afghanistan in March. Before he left we bought him a laptop to take with him to use because the military computers are so restricted on usage. I understand the need for the security on the military computers but unless the service member has their own computer or can get to an open computer to use then communication is very limited. He is a supply sgt so he had his own place he worked & lived out of & was able to connect his personal laptop to the internet.
That was added cost to our family to buy the computer & for him to pay for his internet monthly but we were able to communicate everyday of his deployment. With a 4 year old in the house that was a very valuable asset. If sites like Facebook, My space, Yahoo chat, Twitter & others were allowed to be used then other families wouldnt have to put out any extra cost to get their own computers to take with them. We were blessed that we could do that. Not all families can. It made the year deployment go by so much faster & took lots of worry off of us at home as well as him over there by being able to share photos, video & to be able to chat or use the Yahoo computer to computer phone service which is free to use. We could see each other on the web cams & hear each other on the head phones using the Yahoo phone service. That is something that he woulndt have been able to do on a military computer.
I hope that this will help other familes that will go through this in the future.
Debbie
Q1 – Social media (networking) sites have proven to be very useful in communicating with several of my fellow comrades in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Q2 – The impact of disabling these capabilities would be a severe hinderance in communication. The benefits mentioned in the opening paragraphs would be gone.
Q3 – Facebook.
These internet tools sometimes are the only means of communication back home for the soldiers. My husband pays 60.00 a month for internet service in Iraq and on a good day he will have a connnection for a couple of hours. If the Military would PAY for the soldiers internet connections, then the Military could control the sites. Seeing this comes out of their pockets, there should be nothing blocking any sites. With the suicide rate increasing with soldiers, the more contact they have with family is better. The soldiers will also have the chance to seek out friends, coworkers and community for support during their deployment.
Please do not take away any of the internet rights such as Myspace or Facebook from our soldiers. These websites are a way to make them feel like they still are a part of what is going on back at home with their friends and family. My husband was stationed in Fallujah for 16 months and they only had one satellite phone to use among all of the soldiers. The internet was mainly the only way we had any communication with my husband. We were able to upload photos for him to see our children as they were growing and it is just the easiest way for them to still be a part of our lives while they are away serving our country! Myspace and Facebook is something that most all of the soldiers look forward to while they are deployed and they deserve to have the availability of those things that help them get through these tough times. The phones are slow and I know with my husband’s deployment the phone time was VERY limited and they were shut down alot of the time. Please do not take away one of the best ways of communication that we have with our family members while they are deployed overseas.
I believe it is vital to allow deployed soldiers access to social networking sites. With Facebook, as well as other social media services we feel immediately connected when we use them. It’s real-time and even more personal than a phone call. A phone call, in our experience when my husband’s been deployed, is too short, the lag time is frustrating, and you just cannot convey all your thoughts to the other person the way you can with the written (or in this case, typed) word. Email is impersonal in this instance because it isn’t real-time and I tend to look at email as more ‘business’ like. We do write letters, but that takes 2 weeks at times to get to him, so I never write much about the day-to-day goings-on. The way my husband feels connected to us, his family here at home, is to hear about our daily activities, and yes – even the boring stuff because he can feel like he’s part of our family again, even for a few minutes.
The great thing about these sites is that my teenagers can get on there any time they want and talk to him if he’s available. His last deployment, ‘07-’08 to Iraq he worked odd hours and wasn’t able to use the computer, and could only call at 4am my time. The kids rarely got to speak to him, and our conversations weren’t of much substance. He’s leaving in a month again to Iraq and this time around we’ve been very excited to know that these social networking sites are available to us & his friends & extended family so the kids can feel closer to him while he’s gone this time around.
It’s will also be MUCH more convenient for him to get on his laptop & feel immediately connected, rather than sit for hours in a line at the phone bank!
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
The Social Networking Web site Facebook was the only way I could share photos with my husband when he was deployed in Iraq. There was very little bandwidth on his end, so downloading even a single photo was next to impossible. Through his Wall, he was able to connect with people who otherwise wouldn’t be getting updates on his status. It was a great tool for everyone.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Social Networking Web sites allow our military members serving overseas to keep a lifeline to the civilian world. In my opinion, taking these tools away would impact both the military member and the military family’s morale.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently — Facebook
My son is on his 2nd tour in Iraq and I see a huge difference in communications from now versus 4-5 years ago. Using Skype to see him & talk to him makes a huge difference, it helps seeing him versus just reading emails…or missing phone calls. Another great tool is Facebook, he can keep in contact with all of his friends and not feel so removed from what is happening back here in the states. These tools are great and has to help morale a little bit for them…wonderful progress!!!
Keep these tools!
As a Facebook (FB) user, I can say that access to said site is not only vital for communication with family friends while deployed, but while in a Garrison environment as well.
I have 4 deployments since 9-11-01 under my belt and wish I had had FB access overseas. Not only is email and Instant Messaging (IM) very simple but just knowing what all my frieds and family were up to on a daily (if not hourly) basis can be a huge morale and sanity boost to a deployed servicemember.
I understand there are threats to OPSEC and the computer network, but these threats exist REGARDLESS of access to sites such as FB. A servicemember opening an innocent looing email attachment could just as easily corrupt a system with a virus or bragging about a mission to the wrong person may trigger an OPSEC vunerability.
If DOD continues to allow FB and other web 2.0 sites, all I see will be needed to keep the use secure would be a small team to become intimately familiar with the security threat that may exist and work towards immunizing our networks against the threat that may come from these sites, as opposed to the many more threats which “alternate” sites may bring.
Only through education and understanding can users know what specific online activity could pose a risk to our networks. If DOD bans a site, people will seek an alternate means of satisfying their needs anyway. Then we will see more frequent malicious attacks from internet sites that will take advantage of the Internets unlimited resources and size.
I currently have a husband who is in Iraq, I have found that facebook and other social networking sites is honestly a great way to communicate. He is able to see pictures and videos in which I would not be able to email the amounts I have of birthdays and events he misses and the children.
Also he can chat with me or leave me messages etc. I think it is important, if I did not have that opportunity as a spouse then personally I would feel very lost as I think my husband would as well.
I think it is a necessity that soldiers and their spouses and families are able to communicate as often as possible and sometimes they are in their rooms and have internet faster than they can get to the phone. I have also noticed that Skype and Magic Jack communications have horrible reception and sometimes the internet creates problems for the soldier to keep in touch with their families but they pay a heck of a cost for that internet service for it not to work half the time.
I think its ok if you prevent status updates concerning certain things, but they should be able to talk about the weather, or something that happened that day as long as their are no specifics or locations given… I mean we as the family need to know what is going on with our soldiers to or we sit and worry and think things that don’t need to be even thought about.
I hope that you will not take Facebook or other social media away from our soldiers I need it as a spouse and so do my children …
i think that social media are important links between soldiers and their families, and linking their families as well. i know many of the soldiers in our unit used social media to stay in touch with their families.
about opsec:
i agree with Nathan Adams when he wrote:
“I do understand there are OPSEC concerns with social media but I think these risks can be mitigated by focused and deliberate training on OPSEC in the blogosphere. No Soldier desires to give away useful information to the enemy, they just need to know what not to say. With an aggressive OPSEC training regimen, I think social media can be used by Soldiers with no more OPSEC violations than any other type of communication media.”
personally, i think there should be a predeployment training for both family and soldier that is required about internet and phone security. i know many soldiers, including my husband who were very careful about what they said over unsecure methods. but there are also a lot of other soldiers who may not really realize the seriousness of this. the FRG worked hard to not encourage the spreading of rumors amongst family members, but when the soldiers themselves give out the information it is hard to stop. i attended a presentation by an IG, and they were surprised to hear that soldiers in our brigade had bought cell phones and were calling families on those unsecure lines. maybe if there were more department of defense lines, maybe each soldier could have a pin number and a certain allotment of minutes? at least the lines would be more secure.
i have seen violations of opsec by soldiers on social media, once, i gave a friendly warning that the soldier might not want to post such information and the response i got was very rude.
other security concerns? maybe work with facebook and twitter to help figure out how to make it more secure for soldiers? make sure families are educated about watching out for scams that prey on the military?
overall, as long as there is SEIRIOUS OPSEC education for BOTH family and soldier, i don’t see a problem with soldiers and families using facebook or twitter. they can be valuable tools to stay in touch and make the time go faster. multiple deployments are hard enough.
I recently became involved in a group formed as the Pease Greeters who greet many of the returning and deploying military flights as they refuel as they return or depart the U.S. At one of the last returning flights I met a young man who said he had a one month old baby whom he had only seen through the wonderful provisions of social networking. Since these men and women are deployed fighting for our freedoms, please don’t take away their freedom to communicate with loved ones.
My personal position on the three questions the site asks are:
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with loved ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A: I think this is a matter of personal preference based on how the families communicate today. In my opinion, I would encourage communication in as many ways as possible that members are comfortable with. This of course has to be tempered to secure/protect the service branches members and missions from disclosures as others have mentioned.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loved ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving overseas?
A: I think maintaining the connection between member and family/friends is most important. Generationally, we have seen communications methods change in a deployed environment from letter writing, telephone calls e-mail to social media networks, each with accessibility, timeliness and cost pros/cons. The current generation has grown up with the hi-tech / real-time communications options and the previous generations are adopting them. If the tools were not available, I think it would adversely affect morale and possibly lead to decreased enlistment/re-enlistment. Perhaps some partnership can be accomplished between DoD and the media providers to better secure these sites or communities within those sites for military member use.
Q. When communicating with your loved ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A: I don’t use these tools much, as I prefer telephone calls & letter writing. However, I would use Facebook since that is the medium that my spouse, father and extended family use. Professionally, I also use LinkedIn to maintain contact and status with my employment network.
Q1 – I cannot express the value of having webcam during my husband’s deployment. Getting the chance to see him maybe once a week was such a relief. Seeing that he was okay, seeing his smile. Yes, my argument is completely based on emotion, but it’s the emotions during the deployment that is so incredibly hard – the fear, loneliness, missing someone you love. Having the webcam or instant message or both is helpful in keeping relationships continuing no matter the distance and time.
Q2 . I believe if Web 2.0/ social media tools were taken away at this point in time the effects would be devastating to the military as a whole. Morale would plummet. There was a point in time that a soldier did not follow OPSEC (the solider did not do it through the computer – he did it by opening his mouth when he was not supposed – problems in security do exist outside of the computer world) and if he did not step up and take responsibility for his actions: the result was going to be no internet use. Needless to say it only took him about 6-8 hours for him to step up. Everyone – wives, families, soldiers were not happy about the situation. If you take this away – I do believe soldiers would be close to mutiny and would just try to find ways around it.
Q3. My husband and I used email, webcam, and instant messaging. We went through Yahoo for the webcam and instant message. Emails we used personal emails through Comcast, my work, and AKO. I might change that the next time around and use the AKO site for emails and messaging. I am not sure how well it will do with webcam. I would use it with webcam if it was not so slow.
This is my son’s second deployment to Iraq. Although he did have access to a phone on his first deployment, the reception was not always clear and we were cut off quite often, which was scarey on this end, not knowing why we were all of a sudden cut off. Also with the time difference, alot his calls came to me in the middle of the night!
With this deployment we are using facebook which seems to work very well. I enjoy his status comments, which he tries to do with a sense of humor which allows me to know that he is still trying to maintain it, even during distressful times. If he is having a rough time, I can feel the pain with him and offer support, in a more timely manner. I can use the message center if I need to let him know something important, at the time it hits me, and visa versa for him.
It’s is also good to see the occasional photos of him, or one of his tagged photos from someone else in his platoon.
The great thing is the chats we have, which are usually impromtu, as I never know when he will be on facebook, or he never knows for sure when I will be on. It’s like getting that unexpected phone call. Facebook also allows him to be able to keep up with other family memebers and friends which he was unable to do the first time around.
As an FRG leader , mom, concerned citizen for our troops abroad, I do feel that these tools are keep our families as close as possible during deployment times. Its too expensive to call. Its even harder to reach them for the very busy families home bound. Emails are great but can be delayed information. The children are technologically incline and reaching out the their deployed soldiers through these internet tools is fantastic. What ever can keep them closer. However, I also beleive that soldiers in theatre and parents in country must obey by the rules and be very careful what they post. Education goes a long way. Id love to to a training on this to my families.
Hi there. I am the daughter of a National Guard Sergeant and a Air Force and Coast Guard Auxiliarist. I am extremely concerned that this change will prevent Dad and other family members of deployed soldiers from communicating with us when they are away. Please don’t implement this change. I know it is a security reason, but just educate service members more about opsec rather than blocking these important networks. We need to be able to communicate with one another. Thanks for reading.
I want the quality of life that everyone has mentioned, but my remarks come from the perspective of someone dealing with major crisis during a deployment that finally resulted in a humanitarian transfer and a child being a cat 5 EFM. We rely on the internet to stay connected. It’s wonderful to be able to share pictures and conversation, but it becomes even more valuable when, despite your best efforts to prepare for separation, situations arise and being able to communicate briefly with your spouse makes home life so much smoother. Having that connection helped him know that I was handling it so he was able to do his job and not worry that I was not up to the task.
I feel that if the military is paying for the connection, then they should restrict sites. If we are paying so much individually for unreliable internet, then we should have access to those sites as we adhere to the military’s rules of conduct. We’ve found IM on Skype to be more convenient than FB.
The importance of keeping in touch with our soldiers during deployment is crucial to their moral. When my son and daughter were deployed to Iraq we depended on Skype to communicate. Often days would go by without a single message but then a phone call where I could sometimes see my soldier was such a blessing to my myself and my grandson’s to have their dad close to them even if only for a few minutes. Work on your Security Issues without affecting the use of Facebook and Skype.
Web 2.0/social media tools are a critical necessity to both military members and their families with love ones who are deployed. My understanding is that around the 6-month mark, or mid-tour for USA SM, family/friend contact becomes critical. At this point deployment separation starts to cause personal stress. This is why R&R leave is so helpful to the well-being of the SM. In addition Web 2.0/social media tools augment what counselors cannot provide. These tools provide direct, real-time connection to the social environment the deployed SM is disconnected from during deployment. It also gives the family of deployed loved ones the chance to be reassured their loved-one is still doing well. If the Deployed SM is having difficulty they may feel more comfortable venting their issues with their friends and loved ones more than to a counsellor. This makes these invaluable tools for maintianing the combat readiness of our deployed force and their families.
If Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas there may be a greater gap in comunication with those families and deployed SMs. This would increase combat stress in both groups. It also contributes to the isolation of deployment for some SMs. This contributes to PTSD, Suicide and other issues that are mitigated by allowing the SM to vent their issues with their friends and loved ones which they may be less comfortable discussing with a counsellor.
When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, I use Facebook, and Yahoo Instant Messaging most frequently.
I also use Skype when communicating with family/loved ones while deployed.
I didn’t go through and read all that has been posted, but I believe that as far as blogging goes, keep it private and be very careful what is posted – ie pix and details regarding soldiers job. My husband is MI and I am the FRG leader of his unit – I advise all wives to be private on blogs. As far as facebook – I don’t recommend it – I was getting stange e-mails from people I didn’t know through facebook – and I never put anything military on it – I just don’t feel it is secure like they say. I have no experience with Twitter.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
For some families this is a valuble tool,the benefits are they can communicate with thier loved ones who are deployed easier and on a more frequent basis. I dont think it is a critical option,but at times it can be extremely useful. For me I do not use these social media tools for safety and security reasons. I think military families should be more aware of what they put on these media tools and use the guidelines that are asked of them when thier loved ones are deployed.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I am sure it would impact alot of service members and thier families,I have found these sites used so frequently because of the low bandwidth which made it easier for the soldiers to be able to communicate with thier families back here at home. I have not found these sites to be useful for me, I also have found it to be a security risk as well.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
I do not use any Facebook or MySpace, for safety reasons. Due to the sensitive nature of what my soldier does for the military. I have found these sights to be quite dangerous for me and my family and of course for my soldier,his safety comes first. People can track your daily movements,they know your spouse is deployed by comments of other people,you try to tell people not to post things on your personal life,but most civilians do not understand that some service members are on highly classified missions, as well as thier MOS. This is when there are situations of putting your service member at risk, as well as thier family. I use skype and yahoo messenger,those sites I have found to be extremely helpful all during my soldier’s deployment.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Priceless… Definitely a critical necessity. I haven’t found anyone who has said that these tools are “merely a useful addition” so I know that I am not alone in my thinking. The internet has become a primary source of communication — especially for those individuals born in “Generation X, Y and beyond.” This will only increase and it will be imperative for the military to embrace social networking and the internet in meeting the morale needs of it’s soldiers and military families. To not offer this type of communication would be detrimental to many military famiiles.
My husband was deployed to Kuwait from Jan – Dec. 2008. During that year we communicated primarily though IM and Webcams. (In fact, I don’t have a single hand-written letter from him from the whole year he was gone…) The time differences made connecting via phone difficult because of our schedules but we could almost always connect via IM and/or Webcam. We could also use Facebook to update our availability or when we’d be around to connect, etc. My husband purchased an “Iraqi” cell phone but the cost to use it was so expensive that he didn’t use it often and when he did, the connection was so bad that we could barely understand each other.
Being able to use webcams, Skype, social networking sites, etc. kept us in better contact that phone, mail or even e-mail. For the most part, it’s a virtually free service which virtually elimitated the need for phone cards (except that he had to pay for time at the internet cafe) and thus far, the most cost effective option as well as the most useful.
My husband was able to celebrate birthdays, talk to our two year old daughter (to keep him fresh in her mind), “meet” his newborn baby who was born while he was deployed. I could, and did, send pictures, videos and what have you, but it was a huge morale boost for us to be able to “talk” and see each other on a regular basis. I could see him, know that he was okay and he could see the girls, see the milestones like sitting up, first laughs, birthday parties, etc. in real time. In addition to the milestones, we went through some personal challenges that during his deployment (on both sides of the pond) and I will say, without reservation, that our marriage wouldn’t have survived without those tools.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
It would take the stress and inconvenience and fear that are associated with deployments back a generation. When you are facing a deployment there are so many things that you worry about — both from the one being left behind and the one who is leaving. Being able to use those tools was a huge morale boost for both of us. Some of those worries like missing the birth of your child, missing birthdays, not being forgotten by young children, seeing the milestones, being able to talk to your spouse, making important decisions together…those things are so vital to feeling like a cohesive family and through Web 2.0 and social media, we were able to still have those moments. Without them, the deployment would have been much harder to get through and would have ultimately made the transition home a lot harder as well. Being able to communicate through webcams, etc., allowed my husband to be part of the family even when he was 6,000 miles away. When he returned, our two year old remembered him; the baby recognized his voice… The kids weren’t “strangers” to him or vice versa.
Marriages go through a tremendous amount of stress both leading up to and during a deployment — I know mine did. There were times before and during the deployment that I really didn’t think we would make it through. And, while social networking didn’t “save our marriage” — it did offer us the opportunities to communicate and talk and be a part of each other’s lives that we wouldn’t have had without it. Our marriage came out of the deployment intact, partly because of the ability to connect and communicate via IM messaging and webcams. It didn’t solve all the problems but it allowed us the immediate connection and feedback we needed to have the conversations we needed to when we needed to have them.
I think back to wars and conflicts in the past and I must say that if I were a soldier’s wife in the previous generations, I/we would not have made it. The technology today gives families the opportunity to stay connected. That is a luxury compared to having to wait for letters that may or may not arrive from a battle zone. I knew where my husband was, I knew when I’d hear from him. I knew when I wouldn’t. People in the community would always make comments to me when I told them my husband was deployed about how hard deployments must be, etc., but honestly, it wasn’t hard — not compared to the circumstances military wives/families found themselves in in previous generations. I feel blessed to have expereinced a deployment (if it was going to have to happen) in THIS time in history because the technologies are so great. It would be an absolute detrement to the morale and well-beings of families to take away those communication options.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
SBC/Yahoo Instant Messanger/Webcam mostly. We did post on Facebook and chat through that occasionally but mostly we talked via SBC.
Dear DOD,
I have never been one to hold much stock in such sites as facebook or myspace. However, since my son was deployed to Iraq, I have been signing in on my daughter’s account to see pics my son posts, updates that let me know he will be busy and away for a few days, etc… Although he calls once a week and emails me once a week, the updates help keep me in touch with his status daily. Everyone knows a mother thinks of her children daily!
If you need to set down some rules or guidelines then do so, but please think about the good it has done.
TEB
I was able to communicate with my husband everyday during his deployment in 2003-2005. He was able to support me emotionally through some really tough times even though he was so far away and I was able to support him as well. Being able to see each others face and have a conversation with him through messenger was absolutely the greatest way to communicate while he was overseas. Our conversations were about us, our family, our friends and anything that he was missing out on while away. This kept him feeling like he was still here and active in our life at home. If we didn’t have these options I believe it would have impacted our relationship negatively and caused more grief than I can imagine. I understood there were times when he would be gone and unable to communicate which was no problem for me because I knew he would be there when he could.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently? We used Yahoo messenger and Yahoo Chat.
friendly combat
1. Was in Iraq (mostly LSA Anaconda) 06-07. Used email via AKO extensively with friends and family. I knew chat was available, but most of my family and friends aren’t accustomed to communicating that way, (was 50 and 51 while over there, my peer group doesn’t do it much ) so didn’t use it. My wife’s infrequent emails were an issue. When finances allowed, bought an expensive phone card. Never heard other unit members talk about using anything other than email.
2. Please don’t get rid of AKO email, it is well used and faster than snail mail.
3. AKO email and the internet and phone calls was the only communiction means I used.
It was wonderful having the technology so that I could contact my son almost immediately even though he was on the other side of the world. Keep it up!
Q1: I feel the value and benefits of these tools to be a very important tool in keeping the spirits of the soldier and their families up during deployments. My husband was deployed during Desert Storm, we had ONE phone call a month, collect, and it cost an enormous amount of money. Now my husband and son are both in the military, their recent deployments have been made much easier, because I can look on the computer and see they are ok. I can also chat with both of them. They can hear news from home, and know that we are doing well, that puts them in a peace of mind so they can concentrate on their jobs there. The frequent contact allows them to focus on their mission there.
Q2: Removal of these tools would be detrimental to both the soldier and their family. With a couple of clicks of a mouse, soldiers can get words of encouragement, see what is happening back home and remain in touch with family. Pictures can also be exchanges, soldiers can see the events that are happening at home.
Q3: Facebook and MySpace.
Q1 My husband was recently deployed and he was not able to use web 2.0.
Q2 He has been deployed 3 times and communication is always welcome in any way shape or form as long as it does not reduce his safety
Q3 phone calls , skype (on rare occasion), and email
While i believe communicaton is great, and is always welcome. I don’t think it is a good idea to be able to be on facebook or myspace while deployed. i believe communication should be limited to emails, skype, and phones. They are after all in unsafe areas. I will gladly communicate with my spouse in a limited way if it helps him and others to be safe. I think facebook and myspace is ridiculous for the military to utilze. They are there for a purpose that does not include finding out the latest gossip at home. I realize that the military personnal want to be able to see their children and family. It can be done in a manner that is more secure for them. If they have time to find out the latest gossip, then they need to find something to do. Each time my husband has been deployed he has worked on aver 14 hour days. Not leaving him muchtime to chat. I would only hope that the other servicemen and women would much rather work hard and get the job done then find out the latest gossip. You cant have it both ways. The military is the military, not a civilian job that requires travel.
Social media tools are very critical necessity for military families. I currently use facebook as my social tool. It is easy to use and has some security measures. I was able to post pictures of our new baby so that my family that is not living near us can see the new addition. I am also able to keep in contact with friends that are not living near us.
The removal of these tools would be horrible. It’s the only way to comunicate in real time with family and friends. I could take a picture of our son right now and within 5 minutes have it loaded onto facebook so they could see it. If we did not have social media networks, we would not be able to communicate as easily or quickly as we currently can.
Skype, email, texting and facebook.
Q1. The two choices that you provide are not adequate. The tools are neither “critical” nor merely “an addition”. They are good tools that keep us in contact with home. Those of us in the Reserve component have an entire life outside the military to keep up with and will need to go back to.
Q2. Much less contact. These tools are very efficient at keeping us connected. I can still communicate with my wife via email. But I will likely not be able to stay in contact with all the people from church and the people from work and relatives. These tools save time and improve my quality of life while deployed.
Q3. Facebook.
Q1- the benefits are the ones mentioned in the opening statement. Having these capabilities keeps families connected. The ability to get on-line and have instant communication with a loved one is a vital part of the mission. E-Mail and phone are nice but alot slower. When my son was overseas I primarily used e-mail but towards the end I was able to get on facebook and that was even nicer! to see photos or add a photo etc. made it easier for all of us
Q2 -Taking them away would be a detremint to morale. Would there be the capability of securing a website that would be safe to use and that would have the same positive aspects of facebook etc?
Q3- E-mail, Facebook
It depends on your definition of web 2.0 and social media (I work in the Internet field), so I’ll ignore that classification and just tell you what tools we used during my partner’s deployment.
Q. We used Skype, Tumblr.com, and email. These were essential. We have a son who was 14 months old at the time of deployment. We used Skype nearly daily to remind him that daddy was still here in our lives. Email was essential for the day to day tasks and also for SMS to email. Tumblr was a nicety (though probably not essential) as it allowed me to post photos, video, and audio of our son. At that age, everyday has huge growth, so the ability for my partner to hear new words, watch him learn to run and jump, and see him dance for the first time was really wonderful.
Q. I would probably have gone mad without Skype. I absolutely needed it to have some semblance of a family. I would have been furious with the military if they took that away from us. I probably would have organized a protest and marched on the capitol about it.
Q. We didn’t really use Facebook or the other “social media” sites. Just the tools I mentioned.
For me when my husband was deployed ‘07-’08 in Iraq My Space was more active but not for communication with my husband but with friends and other Army families. I am both pro and con to the sights. Yes it is a great way to stay in touch but for those who don’t think about security breach it is a very big deal. My husband doesn’t like the sights himself, says it gives out way to much info. Unfortunatley this day and age there are bad people who want to hurt soldiers and their families and these sights give them an easy target. We lasted this long without getting info off these sights, I say na to putting so much info on the sights. As for allowing access to My Space and Facebook, I say let the soldiers just not on a military computer and gie them rules. To many hackers on those sights. NO offense to younger soldiers but sometimes they don’t realize what they say until it is too late.
My hubby and I’s main source of comunication was Windows messenger, we set up a web cam and it didn’t work a lot but sometimes we got lucky. That way we chatted whenever he had a chance. So there are other sources without putting your whole life on a page and giving the world all your info to see. It is a chance we didn’t want to risk with such vital info. No one is perfect but at least we can make ourselves more aware and not an easy target!! GO ARMY!!!!
I think communication is the best thing possible for families, marriages, and deployed members. These sites provide a way for a member to stay intouch with their family and friends. I do not believe it is ridiculous at all. My husband and I are dual military members. I know when he was deployed, seeing pictures of his newborn daughter provided motivation for him. I’d like to see a study on divorce rates in the military before and after ability to use social networking sites while deployed. The same people who can hack into these sites can hack into email. You can also make your page on these site very private. Facebook is even more secure than myspace. Thanks
My son was deployed in early July 2009…these websites (I use facebook) made a huge difference for me. I don’t live in the state where he was stationed, so facebook has made it possible for me to communicate with not only my son, but soldiers from his unit and their families…Unfortunately, my son disappeared from facebook a little over a week ago, so I assume his unit is not allowed to use it…It’s nice not only to communicate with each other, but to read what’s going on with others…With the time differences and poor quality internet, it’s much harder to get communications from him now…I hope the military finds a way to protect their computers and the security of our soldiers, and still allows communication through these websites or a special military site that the families all have access too….
When I was deployed it was great having email and phone available to talk with my family. Email is a good tool but not very personal. Phone requires waiting in long lines and aquiring a phone card. My Nephew is deployed and it is great being able to use FACEBOOK to stay connected with him. It is not just a two way conversation,it can be a group discussion and group support for him and family while deployed. Please concider how any restrictions the military puts on our service membersin this area also impacts their families who are used to using community web-sites.
my husband and son are in kuwait for a year with 8 months remaining and my husband bought a 300.00 phone which only works once and awhile before he left every one told us to download a site called skype which the internet hardly runs there so we have not been able to use he said the tent he is in does not have internet which i would like to know why when our men have to be gone that long why they dont help them keep in touch with our family. i very much feel the internet would help us keep in touch and stay close to our loved ones while they are fighting for the freedom of this country and tring to maintain a normal life to return to. so in any way we can get the tools they need to keep us close would be very helpful.
thank you tari klemme
I was a young junior-enlisted pregnant wife during Desert Shield and Desert Storm while my husband was deployed on B-52’s. Our phone calls were once a week after he waited in long lines and sometimes was unable to reach me. In which case, he would move to the back of the line and wait again for his turn. (Some calls would come at 3 or 4am because of the time difference, so the little ones aren’t up and can’t talk to Daddy.) Knowing when to be home and trying to not have negative emotions in that 15 minute call was very difficult. It was hard to plan ahead, because he never knew from one week to the next his flight schedule. Also, snail mail took forever and often got lost for weeks before delivery. I currently work with many waiting families, and my husband continues to deploy in service of our nation’s freedom. I understand the emotions, difficulties and challenges. These social media outlets help us to feel connected and allow us the opportunity to stay in touch with our loved ones. I think with proper training of OPSEC families should be allowed to keep their social media enteraction. The military has always had things that can be discussed and things that are not allowed. We receive training in the Top Secret world, and abide by ALL rules. Train families to use proper social media protocol. They can do it, and will appreciate the opportunity to catch their loved ones up to date without going back to the old way of doing things.
While our son was deployed in Iraq we found the blog he wrote to be as much or more informative to our family on just how things were going for him. He often was able/willing to go into more details in his blogs than he did in his e-mails and occasional calls. His blog was exceptional in keeping his immediate and extended family up to date. This was before Facebook became so popular, so as beneficial as his blog was had we been using a site like Facebook it would have been that much better. I would encourage DoD to support and extend their social media tools. Any possible security issues real or imagined can be handled by our current technology. The minor risks are greatly outweighed by the benefits to the service members and their families.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A critical necessity: While deployed, our loves ones are removed from their daily lives to serve. While there are some options for direct real time contact, Social Media and other web 2.0 tools offer an outstanding sense of community and belonging: Most of today’s solders were raised on social media and similar tools, and maintain connectivity to their peers & friends thru these tools in their daily civilian lives. The portability of Social media allows all of us to stay connected during a critical time. Our church uses Social media tools to stay connected to our family members while deployed. We stream services to them, and even use other tools (some mentioned here) to allow them to talk and address the congregation during services.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
In some cases, a complete breakdown of the family unit and extended family could be expected. The social media tools permit some semblance of normal life to be conducted while deployed. As is a reality when deployed, some solders don’t make it back. Social media allows us to be part of the solders daily routine, and those precious interactions could become our last words to a loved one. To not have this community would be a huge blow to those of us back home. This isn’t just to family, but to friends and many others who are part of the daily lives.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook is currently the most popular we’ve used; E-mail, SKype, and Instant Messaging are great for one to one connection.
General comment: I get that there is a risk with some of the community tools, but these are solders; they get it more then anyone else! Social Media is happening all over. To limit access to Social Media will simply invite people back home to be the intermediaries, loosing a layer of content control that is necessary to keep our military safe.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. Social medium is very important to military families who are deployed or assigned overseas. Not all soldiers have families to have the luxury of computers at their disposal or even have families who care if they’re in the military overseas. These soldiers rely on a social networking environment with friends and other social networking outlets. The benefits of social media is instrumental to the all families, military or not, so why exclude the military when you talk about threats. We are all Americans with social needs and not only are soldiers are deployed but civilians too.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. I believe, regardless of the situation, the soldier will find a way around social media restrictions and have contact with their families in limited stature. My question would be, why would we place this kind of stress on our soldiers who already have been placed in stressfull situations anyway?
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. Our favorite social medium is the cell phone and youtube. The government is stupendously slow when it comes to providing welfare items for the soldier and the families (even at this day and age of the 21st Century). Sure the government provides the latest weapons and protection for survival -duh! But, when it comes to the soldiers who are deployed overseas or just assigned, the government has to rely on the ambiguity of the ‘what ever is available’ to the general public when it comes to social networking.
I feel that its invaluable that our troops have the ablilty to use social networking for contacting home, and family as well as friends. My soldier is currently in Iraq, and though hes been deployed before, I have not had to deal with deployment in my family before, so its challenging, and there is nothing like waking up in the morning and seeing an instant message on my screen from him, telling me that hes doing well. Also when the phones go down, which seems to be a regular occurrence as of late, he can use Yahoo messenger to call me. I feel that it is a critical necessity to our soldiers to be able to communicate with friends and family while in a deployment as the leading cause of death in world war two for american soldiers, was indeed HOMESICKNESS… this communication is KEY, to the success and mental stability of our men and women!
I think if this option was not available to us that a lot more soldiers would experience “burnout” “homesickness” and many other mental health maladies. I mean yes they knew when they enlisted that they might be deployed at some time during their time with the military, but as a human being, its an incredible challenge, and sacrifice to leave everything you know and love behind, without any real contact for a year, two years, or however long their deployment is. Also missing out on very important events that could impact their performance in their job.
I’m pregnant, and my soldier has arranged for leave to come home for the baby to be born, this will be his firstborn child. I feel that if he was denied the ability to be present for this event, it would dramatically change his ability to do his job effectively thus creating a bigger liability to not only himself but to the other soldiers that depend on him doing his job right.
I have heard of things like this happening: where at the last minute a soldier is told they cannot go home for r +r, and other arrangements were made to “see” the birth of a child via the internet, which is really great, sure its not the same as being there, but I am sure that without the use of social networking that soldier would have probably had a much harder time completing his duties without being distracted by the fact that he was denied the right to be part of a critically important event in life. (however I think that personally having something as personal as a birth broadcast over the internet is a violation of personal privacy, what with hackers, and so on, who, might see that??? but though thats my personal opinion, Im sure that the family that used that as a way to have “dad” there felt different)
Most kids learn in middle school health class that there are three parts of total health Physical, Mental, and Social, well the military has the physical down pat, no issue there, but our soldiers depend on friends and family communication for mental and social health, therefore having Internet available to our soldiers ought to be a REQUIREMENT for each soldier, just as having the opportunity to eat and sleep, it improves their overall health and makes for a better functioning Soldier.
most of the communication between my soldier and myself is via YAHOO MESSENGER, where we can “call” and talk to each other as well as see each other on web camera, but for leaving him messages we use his yahoo e-mail as Myspace takes a long long time to load, due to poor connections in the middle east. that is my problem, we spend more time waiting for his computer to re-connect than actually being able to communicate, is there a way to improve that? But long comment short, I feel that having Myspace avail is critical too, as the time differences etcetera, our soldiers can see whats going on with several friends and family members all at once in one place instead of having to sift through dozens of regular e-mails, and downloading picture attachments, they can see new pics by the handful all in one place…there is no way to put a price on that. Our soldiers and their families already sacrifice soo very much for our freedom, let them have the ability to keep up with whats back home, and perhaps play a game or two online to escape the current reality, when they have their personal time, it will make for a better more effective military overall.
thanks for your time, hope my input was helpful
ive been through 2 deployments, communication w facebook and myspace is great. skype and messengers sometimes dont work and these sites help communicate with the loved ones over there
Q1: My daughter is currently deployed in Iraq. Having the social networks like Facebook available is critical for us. There have been times when she could not make a phone call for several weeks, and on our end, all we could do is worry and wonder and pray. However, she was able to get on Facebook real quick and shoot us a message. “I’m ok. I love you. I miss you. Don’t worry.” Even these short little messages helped to assuage the worry we would otherwise endure. I also feel that it’s vital for the soldiers to be able to get in touch quickly with their loved ones. I think it helps enormously with morale. And I know, for my soldier, there’s the added worry of us worrying, so it helps alot that she’s able to send us quick messages, knowing that it eases our concern. I think it’s vital for our soldiers to have this option open for them and their families. They have enough to do and worry about without having to add extra worry about those of us at home worrying when we don’t hear from them.
Q2: If these social networks were not available, I think the impact would be negative on all sides. Again, sometimes just a quick message means so much for both the soldier and their loved ones. I think morale for the soldiers would decline as well as the families and loved ones left behind. I think that it’s imperative that communications between soldiers and their loved ones be kept as open as possible, with security being first concern, of course.
Q3: I have email, Facebook, and a MySpace account. Facebook is by far the one I use most when communicating with my daughter. It’s just easier and quicker than the others.
i’ve never been able to use these sites due to usaf restrictions, but it would be nice
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Internet access to my soldier during deployment is a critical necessity. It took over a year and a half for him to integrate back into our family and catch up on all that he had missed during his last deployment. Our family was nearly destroyed by the difficulties the lengthy absence brought about. With the internet, Skpe, and other social media tools, he is able to continue to be a presence in our lives and keep up with how our family is functioning. Even the R&R time we have recently spent together has been significantly improved since the last deployment R&R time. The awkwardness associated with the return home has been significantly reduced as a result of this communication that was not previously available.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Having been through this before, I can say that the chances of divorce upon return from a deployment would significantly increase, thus creating additional reintegration problems for the soldier back into the regular world. Additionally, many families have had to opt for counseling services and medication for anxiety, speaking from personal experience, from worrying over the welfare of their soldier. Essentially, it is a peace of mind issue. Families are better able to carry on knowing that all is well with the soldier and having that affirmation through Web 2.0 tools.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We frequently change up the services we use so as not to create a pattern. Occasionally he will post a note on Facebook that says he is reading a new book or such that lets me know he is ok. When we chat, we often use Skype so that my students in the classroom can communicate with the Soldiers and thank them for the service they give. At home, we occasionally use Yahoo Messenger, but the video feeds from the bandwidth drain over there are so poor that we can only type back and forth. Other times, we use standard email to catch one another up on how we are doing.
On another note, it is important to maintain operation security. The soldiers and families are well aware of those boundaries. If individuals break OpSec, then they should be held accountable, but the use of social media is an important advancement in the communication between families and soldiers and should be allowed to continue for the sake of morale and mental health.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options? When my husband was deployed, he was unable to view the videos I had been taking. If I tried to email them to him, the email would get returned because the file was too big. If I posted it to YouTube, he was unable to view them because the YouTube website is not accessible using a military computer (even here at work I am unable to view the U.S. Army’s own YouTube videos). He ended up buying a computer and paying an ISP to connect to the Internet. But then, when he had the time to view them, everyone else was on-line and the band width was very limited.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving overseas? The deployee loses touch of what is going on in a usual cyber life and what is happening at home with family, friends, and organizations.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently? We did not yet have Facebook accounts when he was deployed. Facebook is the medium in which we currently keep in touch with our family and friends and keep track of what they are doing.
During my husband’s deployment to Afghanistan in 2008 we were fortunate to communite with him on almost a daily basis using Skype’s free online web video connection. Our four children and I were able to keep him updated about our daily lives and SEE and HEAR him every day! This capability allowed our one year old daughter to remember who daddy was and he didn’t miss a single one of her milestones. This tool was invaluable and would be terribly missed during future deployments. Just the daily connection kept our family bonds so much stronger.
I’m in the Air National Guard. The majority of our members are traditional meaning that they serve 2 days per month. While at home or at their civilian employers they do not have access to a CAC enabled PC limiting the ways we can communicate with them.
My unit has been researching ways of open dialogue between members beyond exchanging large numbers of emails. Facebook offers an environment where we can control the access to the forum and make information available to the members at any time they can login.
Many DoD organizations have been launching their own Facebook sites but we can’t access those from our AF installation. It doesn’t make much sense. Let’s move forward and utilize the contemporary tools that have become available to improve open communication within our organizations.
I’m glad you’re out looking for feedback & hope this helps support your efforts.
Q. So far my husband and I have been unable to use these options during his deployment to Afghanistan. The few times he has been able to be online, we have used mostly text chat, as it seems to be the smoothest way of keeping a conversation – both video and voice chat kept disconnecting when we tried them. If the connection could be maintained well enough to support video or voice chat, we would definitely use them. I am expecting our first child during this deployment, and it would be invaluable to both of us to be able to have my husband see his son in real-time, as he will not be home for the birth, and our son will be 10 months at least when my husband’s deployment is over. Having sites like Facebook available to him would also allow me to post pictures that can only be accessed by my those friends that I choose to grant access to, so that I could post pictures of our son where he could see them and not worry about strangers being able to see them, or having pictures printed and getting ruined in the mail.
Q. At this point, with poor connection quality where my husband is at, it wouldn’t make much difference. But I strongly feel that the military should not ban these options, or that if they do feel they need to ban the public websites (like Youtube), should find a way to provide secure versions of internet chat, voice chat, and video chat that soldiers and families would still be able to use when the soldier’s internet connection is good. Facebook and similar sites are a way to provide similar ways of keeping up with our soldiers even when we cannot connect with them in real-time on the internet. Posting pictures and comments back and forth can be a great way to keep in touch when the soldier’s and family’s schedules just don’t mesh.
Q. Currently we are relying mostly on snail mail. But if he had reliable internet access, we would probably communicate over text, voice, or video chat much more often than is possible at the moment, and would probably rely more on emails than on physical letters, which can take anywhere from 8 days to a month to reach their destination. We would probably utilize facebook to some extent, for posting pictures, etc, but would still use email and chat functions more for real communication.
My son is deploying to Afghanistan with the NHARNG very soon. It’s his first deployment, but my ex-husband was deployed in 1991 to the Persian Gulf with another Natl. Guard unit. The ARNG has come a long way in taking care of their soldiers and their families. In 1991 communication was limited to regular mail, phone calls, and news through embedded media. All of these were random, and less than reliable. I am thrilled to be able to have the possibility of using Face Book with my son, while he is deployed. As families and friends, we are not looking to comprise the security or safety of our soldiers, only to keep that essential bond from home going. In generations past, secrecy was key, but today the world is a different place and the issue of location is no longer secret. Keeping soldiers and their families and friends connected provides an important piece of the puzzle in “taking care of the WHOLE soldier”.
My husband is in the National Guard, on his second deployment, currently in Afghanistan. His location does not have easily accessible internet, however, I wish it did. The use of computers with webcams and voice capabilities or even without allow us to talk to loved ones who are far away in a way nothing else does. To be able to see the face of a loved one…it can’t be replaced. The use of social networks during deployment makes deployment bearable for families and soldiers. I think taking this capability away would have a negative impact on morale. Soldiers having multiple deployments with limited dwell time at home make it difficult for families and social networking helps families keep in touch.
The DoD needs to find a way to protect security without taking away social networking capabilities. We are one of the most advanced countries in the world and DoD needs to find a way, if they can’t it’s because they haven’t tried. Perhaps congress needs fewer custom jets so that DoD has the funds to persue this.
No matter how thin the pancake….. there are always two sides. While I have personally found relief and comfort in being able to communicate with my son in Iraq, I would never want that immediate convenience to place any of our soldiers in harms way. Every single soldier is a national treasure. Even though there our many stories that strum the heart strings regarding social networking…….I am confident the big picture will be examined – keep our soldiers safe, whatever it takes.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. Having internet accessability specifically for the use of social interaction for deployed military members is essential for the mental wellness of those away from home and loved ones who were left behind. The ability to log on to social networking sites such as facebook or myspace is not as important as being able to access tools such as a site with instant messaging tools, provided standard with a gmail account for example, but also being able to use the internet for taking advantage of live video capabilities such as Skype. Being able to access communication tools such as instant messaging, Skype, telephone, and email was far more important, beneficial, and satisfying than using a social networking site such as facebook or myspace.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. Certain Web 2.0/social media tools should be made available for families to communicate at their leisure because more standard communication methods are not always a practical choice. For example, phone lines may all be in use, or at too high of a volume, bad connections, or simply because seeing a loved one, in my case, my spouse, face to face via the computer during a time of deployment was an invaluable experience which provided a sense of normalcy in our lives.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. Video instant messaging.
The Social Networking sites are most vital for keeping in touch for both soldier and their families. Our daughter is in Iraq and cell minutes are at a premium for her, not to mention that the phone company seems to have no patriotism at all. They charge over a dollar a minute! Email would be the next best thing, and is what we would use if social net sites were banned by the DOD. It is understandable that these sites can compromise security, and it would be easier to filter email. Still it is nice to chat real time with your loved ones.
If the sites were banned, we would get by. We would probably use email instead, but that really doesn’t have that same feel of connection that the social networking sites have. Ideally the phone company would stop trying to capitalize on the war by making calls unbelievably expensive to/from soldiers in war zones. But we are a capitalist society, so what are you going to do?
We use Facebook primarily, then email, phone, and lastly snail mail. We could do without Facebook if that’s what it takes to keep them safe, but I’m convinced that, with all the clever applications out there being developed by regular people, the DOD can come up with some sort of filter and security measures to keep it safe without taking it away.
I was deployed in the mid-90’s in the Army and web 2.0 would have been great to keep in contact with friends and family back home.
Reading all these comments I can’t imagine that Web 2.0 (especially facebook) will be blocked for the troops that are deployed. Do the right thing for them and keep the sites up and accessible.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I don’t think it is “critical”, but I do think it helps the families stay connected. Not all soldiers have the ability to call home, so having a visual site like “Facebook” helps to keep the families and friends connected while a soldier is away. I think it helps the soldier feel valued and puts their mental well being knowing that their family is right there supporting them and have not forgotten them.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I think it would cause the morale to be much lower than it already is. The soldiers are already away from their family and friends and the “normalcy” of life. Having these methods of communication helps them to feel “at home” and part of everyday life of their family and friends. I think it definitely helps their morale.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
VOIP – voice over internet protocol (Skype) and video chat. My husband is currently out of country for training and we are using facebook as well.
To answser question 1: I do believe having the web 2.0 to be very valuable. My husband is currently deployed in Iraq. They have only 4 phones for use for numerous soldiers to use. So it is not always easy to get to the phone, or the times it is available may not be a good time for him to call me. Since time time difference is so great and I work a full time job. It is been a challenge for us to stay in touch. But when we are able to connect to each other using a video messenging it is comforting to see each other. I can see him smile, it makes it more bearable that he is so far away.
Answer to question 2: For our family I believe it would be very difficult. Letters take so long to arrive. The lines for the phones are so long and you have such a brief time, you feel you are rushed because so many others are waiting to use the phones as well. Also due to the amount of people around you are not able to really have the emotional connection and support as you do via video messenging.
Answer question 3: video and intant messaging.
We used Facebook as a means to keep in touch with our deployed soldier husband/dad during a year in afghanistan. I do not know how our kids (or me!) would have got through this without this means of staying in touch. Given his mission, he was not able to call very much but he could at least have a note waiting for us on facebook when we woke up so we knew he was OK.
Having stayed in touch is really helping us as we welcome him back into our family – he is not such a stranger to us all. I believe the loss of these means of staying in touch would be detrimental for the morale of both the soldiers and the families. These brief bits of communication kept us all connected and focused instead of wondering and worrying all the time.
We also use myspace/both of us have accounts. and we are looking into skype, since it is so costly to call by phone.
1) As a Soldier who just returned from theater, and having a husband who went just before me, the social networks are extremely valuable. It is an instant way to keep in touch with all of your loved ones and friends, with minimal time invested. You don’t have to contact each person individually, you can post how your day is and they respond! Simple – extremely effective!! Lessens the anxiety of the family waiting at home as well!
2) If Social networks were not allowed, I strongly believe it will hurt morale. It is a simple and effective way for a Soldier/Airmen to dissapear back home for a few minutes, away from the stress of combat. It will also affect the anxiety of the family back home.
3) After researching the controls/access, I feel most comfortable using Facebook. I find that majority of my Soldiers use Facebook, and as a leader it is the easiest most effective way for me to tell my Soldiers to call me!!!! (They are ALLLLLLLLL on it!!)
My daughter is in Iraq and used the net cam to watch her son’s first birthday party. These sites are the way most family members can find out how their soldiers are doing. This is my daughters second tour and using the computer is much easier than using the phone to find out how she is doing and what she needs me to send her. Please don’t take this mode of communication away from the families of our soldiers.
As an ex military member and a spouse whose husband is currently deployed, I say Security and Safety are first and foremost. We personally only use email correspondence and are looking into web cams but are concerned about security of his location. I agree these social networks can be great morale boosters however, if these are in anyway unsecure and can place our troops and/or their mission in harms way then stop them now, no questions asked!!!!
Years ago families survived without them and although I know they are wonderful for morale, unless the governement can be 100% certain that no breech of security exists by using these then I say better safe than sorry and we can learn to live without them.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I beleive that it is beneficial to those families who have loved ones deployed to be able to see them and hear their voices. Its a sign that those that are deployed are alive and well. It is great to be able to see your son or daughter born right in front of your eyes. It helps you be there in the moment with out missing the excitement of seeing your new child born. I think having them allows family some peace of mind.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas? It would be devasting to not be able to see that loved one. It’s bad enought that the love one is not there 24/7 as it is. This is just a tool to give that person peace of mind. I believe that the morale and welfare of soldiers would greatly decrease and you may see more deaths and injuries that are non combative due to the loss of these media outlets.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently? Facebook.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
These tools are very important to me when deployed, but have been unavailable. It is an addition to the present options.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
E-mail and snail mail are the only options at present, so there can be no judgment of impact at this point. We cna only guess the outcome.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
E-mail and snail mail. I would like to use Skype.
I am a U.S. Navy retiree. I love the fact that general information is accessable of what is going on, onboard
my local base via this medium. It also allows those that are unfamilier with Military lives and personnel a look at what these “local” Military Heroes do on a day to day basis. It allows them(local civilians), some pride and ownership in the local NAS and the accomplishments of the NAS and her personnel.
Please allow this important reach out to the community to continue.
Very respectfully,
Don Waite,
SMC(SW), USN (Ret.)
Limited contact of course is necessary in BMT so the soldier can stay focused, however possible graduations dates should be updated often so parents and others wanting to attend can make plans, get time off work etc.
Contact during Advanced Training has been very nice. Contact for deployed soldiers should solidly remain as a feature. Security is necessary, but all that is possible if websites and protocols are set up correctly.
1. For me the social media tools have been more valuable than I can even say while my husband has been in Iraq. His posts let me know he is still alive, even if he doesn’t get to call more than twice a week. I would rank it as a critical necessity for us. I honestly can’t believe we are even being asked these questions. ANY form of communication we can have is critical in my book.
2.Personally, I think it would be absolutely awful to not have the tools while our loved ones are over seas. Having our loved ones gone is bad enough, not being able to communicate very well would make it even worse.
3.Facebook and MyFamily.com
Here’s what I think, I think the network sites should stay, even though my freance is deployed and has facebook, he never gets on but i controll it and let people know how he is doing. We chat everyday like 2-3 times a day on Instant Messanger and we love it, its his second deployment but first with me and having someone to care for back home in the states. There are some days he has that are the worst and when he gets on at lunch and writes to me and i am on(i use my phone a lot) it makes his day and he has a better day because of it. I also know a lot of people deployed and here with spouces over seas that use facebook and myspace to keep incontact with each other and share pics and other news of what is going on, its a lot easier to share a piture on facebook then it is to upload in an email and have them have to download it, it takes up to much time for them when they are already limited to their computer time anyways in the more congested FOB’s. So I say keep em, just find a way to restrict what is said and what info is give, . although i would hope our military members are smart enough not to put anything on there that shouldnt be, and if they do…..well maybe they shouldnt be in the service
Facebook is an absolute necessity for communication during a deployment. It allows me to get information or pictures to my fiancee quickly to keep him up to date about what is going on at home. Phone calls are not always an option due to time differences. Letters take too long to get there. Facebook allows us to stay in touch when in different time zones and stay close.
Smart soldiers know how to use these resources properly and security should not be an issue. If you don’t think they are smart enough, provide them with training. Taking anything else away from the soldiers who follow the rules would be unnecessary and cruel.
A. I was deployed in 2007 and the use of social media sites really helped me during that time. They gave me a door way to my life back in the states. I could keep in touch with friends, find out what everyone is doing and even chat. Currently I am getting ready to head back over and this time I have a wife who will be home in the states. The social media sites will give my wife and I a way to connect and update each other on the things that are going on. It will be a way to share photos that do not breach OPSEC. The sites give family and friends a way to experience and see the trials military personnel are going through. It is a way to have shoulder to cry on after a bad day of work.
A. It’s bad enough that the facilities overseas are sub par in some areas and to mention that a lot of the time phone lines are down. To take away the access to social media would be bad for moral. You would be taking away another item deployed members could use to keep in touch and have a connection to family and friends. We want to know what everyone is doing. These sites are the easiest way for us to get the information we need to keep us going during our deployment. In battle, commo keeps the commanders in touch with units and troops. Without commo, battles are not won but lost. If you take away our communication lines with our families and friends you are taking away the reason we are all deployed and effectively setting us up for failure.
A. Facebook and MySpace
If the MCPON uses facebook and other military establishments built for the moral of service members like MWR and even bases use facebook to get information out there to service members. But service members can’t use DoD computers to access facebook to see these events or to find out the latest news. It will be good to also work on internet aboard ships while out to sea. The internet is a great tool for service members to stay in touch with their family, friends and new information. Facebook, Myspace, personal email, and other sites should be allowed. A happy military is a good a military and this will improve moral throughout the ranks.
When I was deployed in Iraq it was really nice to know that I could keep in touch with my family in California. Having access to the internet and social web sites are necessary for moral. This type of communication helps the military member feel like he or she is still a part of their lives but it also lets family members know the they are doing fine. We like to use Face Book to share pictures and videos but we also like to use Yahoo for the I.M. and web cam features. Best of all I could easily send a text message and get a hold of my wife at anytime and get a response back from her. Having this capability was really helpful and made my deployment better on my gray days.
As a Mom of 2 soldiers, with 1 having been in war before we had PC’s, to be able to communicate via internet has been as much difference to me AND to them as night and day! It would definitely be a bad thing to cut our soldiers off from their families and vice versa. They NEED to hear from home and get away from the evil they see and hear……WE NEED to hear from them too, even if a tiny note to ease our minds. Life is not grand when we have to wait and worry about our loved ones, and I believe our soldiers are more productive when they can hear from home and KNOW who cares about them- who loves them, and who is waiting for them. They need this- WE need this, so please don’t take the communication away. It’s all we/they have…..and mostly all we/they need to go on.
They’re our warriors; sons, daughters, cousins, husbands, wives- and communication is vital. No one can support our troops like family, no one can put a smile on their faces like family, and no one gives as much as each to each other in times such as these.
Taking away the communication from our soldiers would be devastating indeed. They’re smart and do follow OPSEC rules. Give them a reason for coming back home after their time over there. They deserve and have earned this, and they’ve given us this right also. Thank a soldier–that’s what the families strive to do, not only their own, but others as well.
Please don’t take their ‘home in their heads’ away. You need to do everything you can to let them know just how much they’re appreciated.
Q1 My daughter is currently in Iraq. We post family photos for her to see & comment. She has followed her brothers growing & changing vicariously thru Facebook.
We can post messages of encouragement with each other.
Q2 having the social networking sites availiable can not be measured in the emotional support. During certain times during this deployment, the emotional support was critical.
Q3 We chat the mostly thru yahoo. Sometimes thru Facebook. One time I had to turn on AOL to chat because no other chats worked. My computer has been left online ever since she left on deployment so that she can post messages on my chat,since her time off is usually while I’m sleeping & my time off is usually while she’s sleeping.
My daughter job is with computers. So I understand about computers. Myspace is how my daughter has kept up with her siblings and some of her friends. If there was a way to have 2 servers, one to keep high security for offical military business and low security for soldier communications. I don’t allow myspace on my personal home computer because of security breaches on my firewall. We do have a “family” computer that my children go on myspace.
My son is currently deployed in Iraq and Facebook is the main means we have to commumicate with each other. He says there are minimal phones at his camp and always a line a mile long. The internet for these soliders is a place they can go to experience some normalcy in life. They have to pay for calls with a phone card also, so why take the option to talk to their family for free away?
I believe the social media’s are very valuable to deployed Military Members and the family members as well. Alot of times phones are very limited and mail is slow, as long as mission informationn is not being discussed, I think it is o.k. to use the other medias. I usually use Facebook.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
There are many benefits for soldiers to have the web/social media. I’m able to send him pictures of our apartment to keep him up to date just in case I move some furniture around, if I happen to cut/dye my hair, if I change my look, the fact that he says he proud of me when he sees me wearing a uniform when it comes me going into the medical field since I”m just finishing up school, and able to send pictures/videos of how our pets have grown and how silly they act. I honestly do believe it is a necessity for soldiers because of the fact that they wont feel left out and they wont have a hard time adjusting to anything when they get home. Instead of wondering every day and waiting for weeks to pass to hear a response by letter or when you call and you just missed them because they are going to school, work, or bed due to the time difference. Also the fact of keeping up with finances to make sure that there is always money in the account so the dependents back home will be fine.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Honestly ,I wouldn’t be able to know if he was okay or if he got a cut or a bruise or when he is afraid or nervous I wouldn’t be able to calm him down and make him think of all the goods times to get his troubles to go away. Just like when I had been going thru the channels and heard that there have been some bombings right where he was located at and not able to hear any response and pace back and forth to believe that everything will be okay. Maybe the fact that there might be some important news that you want to tell them maybe the fact that the soldier is going to be a proud parent or that someone is graduated from school or loved ones birthdays come up. Those are important times.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently.
We use plenty of different ways to communicate. We use yahoo messanger/ phone/webcam, aim, myspace, and writing e-mails thru hotmail.
Q. I don’t think that you can place a value on the on the benefits that the social media sites and tools offer families of our soldiers. It enables messages, photos, an sentiments to be exchanged so much quicker than traditional mail methods. It enables new fathers to see their children being born, take their first steps, and grow, something that they would traditionally miss. I believe that it helps keep families together, and marriages strong through the frequency of communication.
Q. I believe that it will be a disservice to the service members and their families if they were to lose the ability to utilize the social networking sites. They rely on these sites to keep in contact with family and friends, which helps the remain “in the loop” with things that are going on back home, hopefully helping the transition of coming back a little bit easier.
Q. My husband has not deployed yet, but we have several friends that are in Iraq and Afghanistan, we use Myspace, Facebook, Skype, and Twitter to keep in contact with one another and to ensure that our friends know that we are still here, supporting them and awaiting their safe return home.
To answer your questions, my husband is currently deployed to Afghanistan, and we use Facebook to communicate, and we occasionally use Skype. Because we can chat almost daily, it means a lot to us to be able to do so. Skype also allows our son to participate, and those calls mean a lot to him.
If social network sites were banned, there would be a huge drain on morale. My husband doesn’t always have the time or the inclination to write letters home, and as others have already posted, phone calls aren’t always an option, either.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I beleive that this is a tool that many use and benefit from. However, I beleive that with any good thng, that some bad habits or situations occur. I do beleive that the use of communications tools of today’s society (social networking, email, webcams, cell phones) increases the communication between our soldiers and their families. This is great for morale at time and distracting at times for our soldiers.
I beleive having the access to my soldier during his deployment was very important for him, me and our small child….. However, I beleive there should be limits to this interaction so that contact does not happen several times during a day.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I beleive it would be very difficult to manage this access completely and I beleive that removing this tool completely would be determinal for our families and soldiers. However, I do bleive that there needs to be some regualtions on this sort of access.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We used Skype…..
I would liek to requst that FRGs be mandated to use specific tools with certain guidelines so taht all of our groups remain consistent.
Thanks!
I was able to get an e-mail about once a week from my son when he was deployed in Iraq and when he was deployed to Afghanistan.
I knew when I got an e-mail things were okay, otherwise, I would have worried. I cherish those e-mails no matter how short they were. It was our communication link. Many of his aunts and uncles kept in contact with him this way also. They would use MSN Messenger, Yahoo messenger or Facebook and many times we were able to converse through instant messaging.
We also enjoyed being able to see his posted photos. He also kept up with the photos we posted. Please keep this web 2.0 Those of us here at home use it as much or more than the soldiers. It is our way of feeling like we are a part of their lives and they are a part of ours.
Having been in Iraq, I can say there are people that know the rules and break them anyway! We had communication blackouts at times for just that reason! Yes, comms with loved ones are important, but I would prefer our soldiers be safe! Never know who might intercept A number of messages and put 1 and 1 together and harm our troops unnecessarily!!!
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. Social networking tools are a great way to stay connected, by getting more family and friends involved in the support system for the soldier and his family back home. If the soldier uses it in a positive manner it can also help the public understand the soldier’s experience.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. It would be harder and isolate our heros more from the comments and support of friends. I would not be as connected to my deployed husband without the social networking tools.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. Facebook, Oovoo, Skype.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Social media tools are invaluable tools to military families. As the wife of a deployed soldier, we have been able to preserve lines of communication that will help us when he returns home. I think that media tools are a necessity that allow soldiers to feel connected to something familiar and allows family members and friends to know on a more regular basis that their loved one is doing OK.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
It would be more difficult to stay in touch and frequency of communication would be cut drastically. I believe soldiers would incur more out of pocket expense to find other methods of communication if these tools were blocked, and given the cost of services such as being able to receive internet in your room, phone cards, Iraqi cell phones, global phones, etc., the trail and error component of these things can become quite costly. If a soldier can log onto a computer, log into their facebook or myspace page and connect to all their friends at once, this lets them continue their lives back home for a few minutes at a time.
On a personal level, if I did not have social media tools to communicate with my husband, my stress level would be much higher and my husband’s morale would be significantly lower.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
My husband and I use Skype and Facebook primarily.
A great tool would be Defense Connect Online. SM can create their own meeting and share files, have audio, have video and chat functionality all on a DoD approved application. It allows for file sharing and is available 24/7
We have 2 great friends deployed in Iraq. We’ve used SKYPE to keep in touch and even to bring them to neighborhood picnics to celebrate with us! We think this is essential for boosting the morale of soldiers as well as maintaining personal connections.
My husband is currently doing is 2nd 18 month tour in Iraq. It would be nice if they actually had realiable internet that is fast enough to use the different media’s available. Both times my husband has deployed this expense has fallen on us and it is not cheap. I know there are the MWR facilities but they aren’t the best either and are limited as to where they can go.
I think sites like facebook, myspace, etc are very important to soldiers and families because it allows them to be able to connect without having to have an actual conversation. I am able to upload pictures for my husband to see and he can also see what is going on with our family and friends. I also have been able to connect with people who are serving with him and other military families to provide a better support network than our state is able to provide.
I feel that any improvements that can be made to our soldiers ability to communicate with friends and family stateside are greatly needed. Thank you for looking for input.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
The benefits of social media tools are priceless. My son doesn’t call nor write letters but he will use facebook and emails. I feel that in many situations that using the web & social media tools that it is a critical necessity. It is an easy way to stay in touch.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
He probably wouldn’t call nor write. At least I know he is doing OK. Emails are an easy way to communicate. We try to post photos on Facebook so he can see what is going on at home.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook and emails
I think the social networking sites are good morale boosters for service members and their families. My husband is deployed now. I have a facebook page and there are several spouses from his unit on there. We can chat on facebook and share with others what we are going through together. This is my husband’s 2nd deployment and I can see I am doing much better because of the developing friendships I have within the FRG. I can also post pictures on there so he can see them. My husband also is able to stay in better contact with his family this time thanks to social networking sites. THe only problem is the reliability of the internet overseas and the availability of it. It is shotty at best and extremely expensive. That expense falls on the service members.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
It all depends on the person. My husband is currently serving in Kuwait and we strictly email each other. The phone calls are not always an option. But my husband doesn’t belong to Facebook or Myspace. Well he has the pages but never logs on. So for us they are not a necessity. The email is. The big concern in sharing things like where they’re stationed or when they’re coming home. But that’s all in OPSEC information.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I believe family members would spend a lot more time worrying about their loved one. Recently my husband’s internet connection was down. I didn’t hear from him for almost a week. In those situations you start to panic. It would prevent things like the birth of a new baby or a family members wedding from being shared.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
only email
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I think it’s a useful addition. When my husband was deployed, the line to use the phones was almost always shorter than that line to use the computers. With phone calls costing less than $.10 a minute in Baghdad, we spent a lot more time on the phone than chatting via social media tools. I think having those tools available – especially in FOBs is important, but having reliable, functional phone banks is even more important.
My fiance was deployed in OIF 07-08 (his 2nd deployment, my 1st), and I honestly cannot imagine what it would have been like without social networking.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Considering that morale is so important, I would say that this is a critical necessity. I stayed connected to the internet every possible spare moment that I wasn’t at work (even when I was sleeping) in case my boyfriend could pop on for a few minutes and chat with me. I also created a “support group” on Facebook and Myspace that all of his friends on there could join and receive his updates and see new pictures he had posted. I also took those updates and emailed them out to a distribution list. This allowed him to see the sheer volume of people who were supporting him and mising him, and it also alowed him to personally provide updates and keep in contact with all of his friends and to KNOW without doubt that he could keep up with the people who were important to him. Phone calls are not always an option, so I was so glad to be able to tell him that his Godfather passed away over IM, and that his father was in the hospital (but ok) instead of just through email. I was able to console him as he was working through the deaths of some of his friends that were KIA. Had it been emails and sparse phone calls alone (I could not accept calls at work), I am not sure how he (or his loved ones at home) would have been able to cope.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I believe they would be more distracted during their missions if there were things going on at home and they could not speak to their loved ones in real-time for support and/or clairty. And I believe that if they still feel connected, they are at a lesser risk for depression and even PTSD symptoms both while deployed and when they return home. Peace of mind that everything is taken care of at home is priceless to a soldier.
However, I do understand OPSEC and even things being posted in bad taste. I do believe things need to be regulated (not everyone has common sense and good judgment). I have seen footage of soldiers being killed in action in a helicopter crash posted on youtube (after the offending soldier got home, I believe), but things like this need to be regulated and disciplined if necessary. I wouldn’t mind seeing this soldier lose rank over posting something so tasteless and wrong.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We used Yahoo Messenger the vast majority of the time, but also Facebook, Myspace, and email.
My husband is in Iraq on a 6 month deployment.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options? GREATLY valuable. Withiout email and facebook outlets, I would not be able to message with him or get to see “i love you” everyday! I love how I can email him my day or just a quick messge and know he will get it as soon as he signs on.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas? It would make the time go by much slower and put many of the fears back into our mind. Even if it’s not a long email, it’s still the fact that I heard from him. That is what is important.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently? Hotmail, Facebook. He can see photos I upload and connect to people from home. We didn’t have this the last time he was deployed, this time these outlets make his deployment much more bearable.
Oh my goodness – without Facebook, I would not be able to communicate with my son serving in Iraq. We get to speak on the phone, but it is far and few between, and limited for time.
Emailing is an option, but the cost of internet that the military is charging him for internet, and the limitations that go with that use, make it hardly worth the cost. Facebook enables him to send pictures – which lets me see his face, and I can send pictures from home too, we can send messages, he can give brief updates when he’s short on time, and the biggest benefit is it allows all our friends and family, which number in the 100’s, to share the experience of his first deployment with everyone that cares about the cause and love him. It also provides a venue for those that want to show their support that perhaps don’t have family serving – we’ve had that as well – more than you can imagine.
Friends of friends of friends, send a quick note to my son or me and say “thank you” to him and his fellow soldiers or offer words of support and gratitude, you can’t beat that for morale.
Please continue to allow the use of Facebook – this has been the hardest thing in my life to deal with – knowing my son is in harms way after 26 years of trying to keep him safe, it was hard to see him go – it’s still hard. I can’t imagine not reading a post, or message from him, or any opportunity to tell him how proud of him I am, how much I love him, and send love and support to all our troops serving our country – far from their families and friends.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak my feelings onthis issue.
Robben Morin
[...] out Use of Web 2.0 Capabilities by Military Families, and few excerpts are [...]
I just had an idea… since network security seems to be priority one and social media is hard-pressed to trump that… Maybe we need to “network” social media on military bases and have two web pages. One page is where “internal” program managers drop their announcements or URL in a standard template so they can be “tweeted” (either through a fire… Read More wall or from a stand-alone set up). The other web page is where “external” customers can register and select which program area they want “tweets”. You could tailor this second page for both “external” military customers/family and the general public. This kind of set-up, with a web stats program applied, could allow commanders to measure what customers and the public want to see and guide program managers on what they should be putting out. Include this as part of in-processing for service/family members and it may prove twitter to be very relavent for military public affairs use. What do you think?
1) Very, but not important enough to use up dedicated military bandwidth, there are other options, MWR, LN service providers, etc.
2) Merely a convenience
3) Facebook, Skype, Gmail
BLUG: Assuming this is across military servers and internet capacity in theater, the loss in productivity, me included, and the loss of bandwidth does not support the need for social media.
[...] out Use of Web 2.0 Capabilities by Military Families, and few excerpts are [...]
I don’t believe any site such as facebook or twitter should be a point of contact for servicemembers and their families. Such social networking sites can provide for distractions into other unwanted fields. If a networking website is used or provided, I think it should be a secure location given by the DOD. I have briefly used facebook and do not think it is an appropriate place for any couple or family member to meet because other distractions are very possible. However, my husband is currently serving in Iraq and we connect through a phone number he established through skype and calls are made from his computer. So maybe we don’t need a website to connect us such as facebook or twitter. Thanks for paying attention to my comment.
Being retired military I understand the need for security and the risks that the internet poses. However, in today’s society it is unreasonable to expect our troops to return to substandard communication methods. If the military uses up-to-date communication for recruiting and other purposes it follows they can find a balance between security and troop use. Again, in today’s society it is imperative that communication be up to the minute. My husband is stationed in the Middle East. With the military’s new rules of forcing the troops to use computers and automated systems (i.e. direct deposit, online LES’, AKO accounts for information) it is completely unreasonable to then ask them to not use computers in other aspects. These social media tools are invaluable while stationed overseas where communication, contrary to popular belief and what the media will have you believe, is spotty AT BEST. Even if I am not actually chatting with my husband we can exchange necessary information through “wall posts” that keep us informed, such as bank transfers, equipment I need to send him, etc. It is also a HUGE morale booster to be able to communicate with family and loved ones. As my husband’s missions are extremely dangerous just getting a quick post lets me know he’s alive which is an IMMENSE stress reliever for me. He can also advise me if he needs anything. I can get it sent to him before we actually talk. Again, while I understand the necessity of security, there should be a way for the military to balance that with the troop and family needs, as they have done in the past. In today’s society it is simply unacceptable to have antiquated means of communication. We use Facebook and Skype.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I’ve been deployed for almost 3 months now and we have not used any social networking sites to stay in touch and we don’t plan on it. The operational security risks are to great to the forces in theater and would leave my young family to vulnerable to criminal activity back home. We’ve stayed in touch daily with e-mail, morale calls, VTC, and skype. If DoD were to create a specific social networking site inside of the DoD network and available to family members only I would support it.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas? No impact on me. Again, it’s difficult for young troops and families to understand the clandestine nature of intelligence gathering becasue you don’t see it…but I’m a communciations officer and I don’t use any social networking sites becasue I know we cannot protect the information passing through these sites.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently? Video calls on skype, e-mail, and morale calls.
My daughter is deployed to Iraq she left behind an 18 month old daughter. We have contact with her through Skype and even at now 20 months she knows what the ringing on the computer means. She runs to computer yelling “mommy mommy”. Then with a few clicks she is able to see us and us see her and that is VERY critical right now as we want her to remember and ambrace her mommy when she returns. Having this access and also to get instant messaging through Yahoo makes life bearable through this difficult time. When you get an email it could have been sent days ago when you are chating or talking with video you see and hear that your soldier is ok. I know not everyone is blessed enough to have this but please do not take it away from the ones of us who do. My daughter and others has allowed people to use her computer and her families come to our house and talk with their soldier also. I brings us together through FRG and our soldiers together for those in need. I know our nations security is what they are fighting for and this is very important but also think of the sacrifice that our soldiers and us as family are making for this.
I would just like to say that Facebook is a great networking tool. It allows you to correspond with friends and family and keep up with eachother with great ease. I think they should definitely allow certain websites like Facebook to be available expecially with deployments.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Headed into another deployment, I think these tools are a critical necessity. At the very least, soldiers need to be able to see pictures, videos from home. While I understand security issues must be addressed, it seems to me that some form of access should be available.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Significant, in that military members would be reduced to waiting for the mail to get pictures, videos. These things take so long to upload or send in an email. However, I do think that the process of instant communication can be solved through simple instant messaging, so the social networking sites would not be necessary.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Instant messaging, webcam, email.
(1) Benefits: (1) It is free, (2) it is faster than any other communication outlet, (3) pictures and/or video show that our two sons overseas are healthy and not just hearing there standard that they are alright, but that we can see with our eyes that they are well. Additionally, our sons can see how there other five brother and sisters are growing and they can hear directly from family what they are doing so they don’t feel so isolated and detached from what is going on for those that they care for and love. Because of these benefits it is more valuable than any other communication channels. Yes, it is an essential, significant communication channel that cannot be replaced or even compete with any other communication channel.
(2) Both our family and our sons would be significantly detached. Morale and emotions would suffer significantly for the entire family and sour attitudes. Our sons would solider on in a quite fashion, but it would hurt them in an inner way that they would not vocalize, but other family on the outside would be very upset.
(3) Skype is used the most (free phone, video and chat real time through the Internet).
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
My husband has been deployed for almost 12 months now and for us Facebook was a godsend. It was absolutely a necessity seeing as how phone calls were few and far between, the phone connection was poor and the delay was horrible. I’ve posted videos of our daughter’s first birthday and other special events so that he could log on and see them and countless pictures of our children. I felt that the use of Facebook helped to keep my husband as involved as possible in our children’s lives while serving half way around the world
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
There’s away to destroy morale . I know that for my husband having all of the those videos and photos there to look at anytime was huge. I mean that’s how he saw he’s daughter’s first steps and heard her talk for the first time. And it also allowed him to keep in contact with so many people, like extended family members and friends, which I don’t think he would have been able to do without the use of such social media tools.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
– Facebook is VITAL to maintaining connections to my husband when he is deployed. Often, I will get maybe 1-2 phone calls a month, but social networking gives us the opportunity to stay in touch, for me to know that he’s doing well, and to give him short updates on how life is at home. Because our daughter also has an account, he gets to hear from/about her as well and there’s less resentment over who got more “talk time” when he’s able to call. This is NOT a “mere useful addition to our options.” Our other options SUCK. Social networking is a critical necessity for our family.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
– Increased feelings of stress, isolation, worry, fear, anxiety and a generalized sense of bitterness towards the military lifestyle, should the DoD take away such a wonderful resource.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
– Facebook and my personal blog.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
They are extremely valuable! It is a way for the soldier to stay in contact with their loved ones back home. My home is deployed now. He’s been gone from us for more than 12 months now. It is his second deployment. During the first, we barely got to talk to you each other either on the internet or the phone. The phone service was awful when we did talk! When he came home, he was so detached from myself and the children. While trying to find a way to fix it, we almost ended up divorced. This time around we talk almost every single day on the internet and as a result, he’s not detached. He stills feels like he’s part of the family. He was home recently for his R&R and it was almost like he had never left. That’s the way it should always be!
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
It would be devastating to the families and the soldiers. My children had a very hard time dealing with his deployment this time around. Being able to speak with him on the internet has made that easier for them and for me. It left him not feeling like a stranger to us and us to him.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
I typically use Yahoo. We use their instant messenger, email, and webcam service multiple times per day.
First of all, I’d like to comment on the use of the term “Web 2.0/social media” I had to look them up. I consider myself an intelligent woman, and I have an advanced degree from a well-known university, but this is one more example of the military unintentionally alienating an entire group of people by using terms that are unfamiliar. OK…now that I have unloaded that I will comment on your question.
My husband is preparing to go on his second overseas deployment as a member of the Army National Guard. In the first deployment our 10 year old daughter wouldn’t even speak to him on the phone because she was having such a difficult time with his absence. However, as soon as we got a web-cam she came alive. The difference in phone and video is tremendous! I’m going to ask our children to put up a face book page that is specifically for them to communicate with their father during this deployment so that they can share stories, photos and videos with each other and keep that wonderful bond while he is away. I like all of the sources I’ve used such as twitter, blogging, and facebook, and highly recommend others to use it, and if they don’t know how to do it, maybe the DOD can sponsor a class on how to start one?
My husband just deployed. Our 5 year old daughter is very upset he isn’t here. We installed a webcam and it brought some normality back to all of our lives while he was at his mobiliation station. The one thing that troubles me is the lack of information regarding what connection services that are available to my husband to use the webcam. We do not know if there will be connectivity where he will be, how much these connections will cost or how fast the access will be. It would allievate some of the stress if this information was disseminated to families prior to deployment. Also I think it should be supplied free of charge to deployed soilders.
These are hard questions to answer when looking at all of the scenarios that could emerge during a deployment and the types of personalities involved both on the battlefield and at home. The make up of the family unit has a lot to do with the need and importance.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
It has been my experience during my fathers trips in the 50’s and 60’s (cold war/Korea) silent service to have no communication at all, no knowledge of when and where we would see him again. We could not receive mail. When he arrived in port we might get a call. During, my husbands tour of duty in Viet Nam we had letter writing …. When 9/11 happened and my husbands unit was sent to Germany I set up an email database to communicate with the families daily. My husband as the 1SG would email me first – I would scrub the data and then I sent an email out to all of the family members. For those who did not have email ability I would call. I now have contact with many current members of the unit as well as past, through Facebook and Myspace. Having given you this background, my opinion would be to stay on the side of email usage. Skype, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook and YouTube need to be left stateside. These tools are just nice to haves. Not needs.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Again this varies and is dependant upon the family structure. This needs again, to be done at the unit level. The families should not feel alone while family members are deployed. These sites have a tendancy to move many to isolation. When/if something does occur to the deployed, the families are unfamilar with individuals they should already know. If communications are driven from a central focus to all at the unit level – the family units at home have a tendancy to become closer, supporting each other. With the increased use of the Guard and Reserve Troops the dynamic changes for the family drastically. Many of these families are not in the military towns found outside the base or post. They are in small towns that often don’t have a clue or the second nature ability to support military families during the time they may be needed most.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Handwritten Letters, Telephone, Email and Facebook. In that order.
Deployment is just that. The concentration of the troops/deployed needs to be on the job they signed up to do. Not on first day at school, johnny’s new braces or the cat got hit by a car. Now, having said that, we do need to have acceptions to the rule, like death of family member, birth of a child or a natural disaster at home. The home front needs to support the troops not the other way around. The troops need to know that we at home are caring for the families they left behind. It can be done at the unit level.
It is a hard thing to experience, watching a family member go off to somewhere else in the world not knowing if you would ever see them again. Several times throughout my life and even today as others are deployed I remember as a young girl, my father going off to sea and as i got married, my father-in-law the day when we watched his son board the plane to Viet Nam as the tears rolled down his face. He knew what his son would face, he was an Anzio Beachhead survior from WWII.
Our son has been in Iraq this past year. I have had the opportunity to speak to several veterans of previous wars from Viet Nam to WWII. They told various stories of how hard it was to communicate with family back home. Some in WWII were out of communication for the majority of their deployment! I am so greatful that the DoD is sensitive to the needs of families. I strongly feel that the strength of the American family and therefore soldier’s emotional/psychological support system plays an integral role in the overall effectiveness and strength of our national defense. I guess that is a very large supposition, but it makes sense. I can’t imagine having had to go through this deployment without communication with our son. When your children become adults and you are lucky as we are to be able to cultivate a a healthy relationship and friendship with them, having to go without that can be quite a loss, and therefore a huge stress. I have not asked my son, but it seems as though he got something out of our phone, email and Facebook conversations as well. Just being able to go on facebook and see pictures of him periodically was an incredible gift. I am not sure I can put it into words. Because people change on a daily basis in little ways, being able to keep in touch will undoubtedly make the transition of coming home less awkward and stressful as well. I think we owe this to our troops and their families. Healthy relationships keep people healthier and I imagine it keeps the soldier’s head on straight. Most people worry more when they don’t know than when they do know. In other words, if I had been left to my own imagination regarding the safety of my son while in a war zone, my nightmares would have tripled. I have no doubt. But being able to talk with him and see him in pictures even smiling at times, put me at ease.
Additionally, I just had a very interesting conversation with Viet Nam vet who managed to successfully reassimilate into life as a civilian after the war even though it was extremely difficult. He said people actualy booed him and threw garbage at him when he got off the plane in this country coming home from the war. Can you imagine? Someone who fought for our country and then being treated like a nonperson upon his return. We need to learn from past mistakes and provide support for our troops in any way we can. Sometimes I think they are at the mercy of clueless politicians who are well acquainted with the power they have to deploy troops, but totally unclear about what that means on a personal level to the the troops and their families. So even though SKYPE wouldn’t work, we had email, telephone calls, and Facebook, and I am extremely greatful. Thank you!
From my experiences with my husband’s multiple deployments to different countries the telephone is the only source of “quick” communication we could rely on. And, in many situations, that was a pretty horrible connection. As bad as the 5 second (yes, I mean 5 seconds) calls are, we can at least say “I love you” once in a while. As far as internet goes….we have yet to get internet service that is reliable. I have paid for my husband to get service, and each time I cancel because he cannot even get online do to the poor networking.
From our experiences, not having all of the media options available will not kill anyone. There are many who are in far worse situations than not being able to see every activity from home. Deployment is sacrifice from both ends of the line. Think about it for a moment…deployment is sooooo much easier than it was 30+ years ago. Snail mail was the only option. Many letters written during WWII never made it or took 4 years before anyone came across it and could try to get it to the correct individual. I honestly get tired of all the whining I hear from people who go bananas because they haven’t seen a certain someone’s face for so long, or a week has passed since they last spoke. Take some photos and get over it!!! Life is not supposed to be “normal” during wartime. I have been playing this game for a long time. Deployments never get easier, but they are not a reason to start whining about everything. Suck it up and move on.
P.S. After reading many of these posts, I feel very old school by saying the telephone is the media we use. Y’all have NOTHING to complain about!!!
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
It is priceless. It is extremely valuable to the mental and emotional well being of the families involved and their deployed soldiers. The military requires training prior to overseas deployments. They require AKO accounts. The military requires this course and that. This should be part of the deployment briefings and planning. It helps to establish a security blanket for the families and mode of communication. It is already a terrible hardship on families and service member and this should be a critical necessity to help prevent service member problems in the future. PTSD is already a problem amongst many service members and this would help to prevent depression and feelings of loneliness especially while overseas. Having these social media tools at the service members disposal helps them to reconnect with those at home instead of the bizarre phone call or email.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
If these tools were not available it would be devastating. Email doesn’t convey what you can using webcams and chatting. You can still utilize these withouth the social media tools but sites like Facebook allow you to connect with friends and family all over and using their instant messaging would allow the quick chat. Service members overseas benefit greatly from having these social media tools at their disposal because it allows them to feel more connected with home.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
With friends that I have had deployed I have used email, facebook, instant messaging. The most common one is facebook.
Q.1. Having deployed previously to Iraq without them, I never imagined Skype and Facebook would have been anything more than a fun diversion from my work week overseas, but they have very quickly become a critical necessity. I don’t have to be online every day, but I do have to get to these at least weekly. My babies are at home with a mom who is feeling buried under all the things she’s got to do, and communicating with each other this is the only things we have to keep ourselves in some sort of normal relationship.
Q.2. Removing these would quite simply be unpardonable. They have become so central to our relationship.
Q.3. Skype and Facebook.
The last time my husband was deployed he was in a very remote FOB and communications were horrible. The phones were down often and so were the computers. But when they were up and working being able to chat was so nice and I really hope that he gets to continue to chat and use the 2.0 options we have a large family and to be able to see him/us helps us all and I believe it boosts his moral makes him remember why he is there.
My son is deploying soon, which is my biggest fear. Facebook is my social network of choice and will help me keep in contact with him and his wife. Our social network includes mainly family and very close friends, so when he is not near we can have our own personal family reunion. We can inform him of family happenings, but yet we know the importance of military security. I hope you allow the social networking, but if not we will have to live with it.
I would say that this is definitely a critical necessity. My boyfriend is currently serving in Iraq. Most of the time he doesn’t have a chance to call me, and when he does it is only for 15 minutes at a time. Sometimes we will go more than 2 weeks without talking on the phone. We do get a chance to chat on Facebook. I have other friends that are serving right now, who I chat with on Facebook quite often. In my opinion, use of the internet is vital. It is very difficult to deal with a loved one being gone and not knowing what is going on with them, when you don’t always get a phone call. Sometimes just to get a message on my facebook from him, is was gets me through the day. I am sure that there are alot of people who feel the same way as I do. A 15 minute phone call every 2 weeks, is just not enough. I am thankful that we can use the internet to connect with the people over there. I also think that they really appreciate it. I can’t imagine being that far away from my friends, family, and significant other, and having no means of communicating, besides a brief phone call every now and then.
My husband is leaving for his first deployment. We always use Myspace when we are apart. Because cell phones dont always have service. It would help so many families of they are allowed to do this.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
It is critical. Our whole family, adult children, spouse, parents, in-laws are all on Facebook along with close friends. It is a “one stop shopping” place for us to keep in contact with our deployed soldier. We post photos and messages to our soldier – that he can access at his convenience. Our soldier also posts messages and photos for us. We’ve discussed OpSec and no one posts things about anything that might put our soldiers in more danger. We DON’T discuss missions or travel times or locations (we say “Middle East” or “Afghanistan” or “Iraq” but we don’t say what FOB or city or anything more specific). We mostly post things about how we are doing, the new puppies, and stuff about home. This really helps my soldier feel connected to home and I think that integration after deployment will be much easier. When he was in Iraq several years ago, there were not many ways to keep in touch, and even though I wrote letters every day, there was quite a bit of disconnect – and the lack of immediacy made it hard to feel connected. Being able to stay connected to my soldier also benefits me and makes me more likely to agree with my husband’s decision to re-enlist or volunteer to deploy.
In addition, although using these sites/tools might seem to be a waste of time, my soldier tells me he is so much more focused than when he didn’t have these things in Iraq many years ago. I would think that the benefits of higher focus and moral going outside the wire is worth it.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas? It is our primary form of communications. It was way critical when I was hospitalized for major surgery while my soldier was deployed. Our daughters were able to keep our soldier informed – he could go on his missions without worry – knowing he would be able to get an update on my condition as soon as he got back. And his “get well” messages let me rest and concentrate on healing as I knew that, at least for that night, he was safe. Without that immediate communication, I would have been much more stressed and probably have cost TriCare more money by not healing well.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently? FaceBook and Skype Video and Voice calls and non-DOD email. There is NOTHING like seeing and hearing your loved ones voice. I post about home life daily, and I know my soldier checks it out as often as he can, even if sometimes he doesn’t have time to post. He tells me how good it is to “see” home. I post videos on Facebook instead of YouTube because I’ve set our settings to only let our friends and family see the videos. On YouTube I can’t limit who can see our videos and pictures.
Other comments: Families, Friends and Soldiers should have OpSec training for using these tools. No one wants to endanger our soldiers. We don’t have “everyone in the world” as our “friends” on Facebook – I only have virtual friends who are real life friends on FB.
Perhaps the DOD can work with some of the most popular sites and make them more secure so that the odds of a hacker/virus getting into the DOD network is minimized.
I agree, that Internet access should be Free to our deployed soldiers. It costs $100/month where my soldier is deployed. That is a significant chunk of money, especially since many in our unit took a cut in pay to Title 10 deploy with the National Guard.
My son is currently deployed (first time) and there is not very good phone service where he is located. The internet is really the only way we have of communicating especially considering the time differences. We mainly use myspace but also use Facebook on sometimes. We all know about operation security so we always make sure not to mention anything that may given anyone a hint as to his location, status, etc. that could reduce safety. It is mainly a way to keep in contact and for me to keep my sanity. Talking through myspace lets me know that my son is ok even though I have no idea where he is or what is going on there, it gives me piece of mind so I don’t worry as much which in turn allows me to be as supportive as possible. Please don’t take these social networking sites away from deployed soldiers!
My husband and I have gone through two deployments since 2003, 12 months each or more. My children found so much comfort in being able to message back and forth and see daddy’s face on the computer. I understand OPSEC and totally respect it. It is unfortunate that a few people can ruin a good thing for the rest of us but if it means my soldier and my family stay safe then I will have to hand write a letter. That being said I certainly hope that we will still be able to communicate in a timely matter with online services for future deployments. The phone calls were few and far between. Calling home for him might mean staying up really late and waiting for long periods of time. There are often delays in the conversation and you end up interrupting each other frequently. Being able to see a blog or an update on your soldier’s status is a wonderful thing when a phone call could be days away. Thanks for the opportunity to give our input.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Social networking sites are advantageous to communication between family and soldier during deployment. The sites can be considered a “morale booster” for soldiers in several ways: 1) quick convenient communication with loved ones 2) a “sound board” (vent/release stresses verbally, request prayer needs, much needed fun during RESET hours, etc). 3) photo share outlet to reach out to loved ones back home and let them know things are going as expected during deployment.
(*flipside)- Deployment and social networking sites should not deliver the opportunity to be “laxed” with regard to content from the perspective of job security. We must be dilligent in reminding our families and soldiers when posting blogs, photos, and/or videos that content should always first protect and preserve the location and mission. Also, bearing in mind when blog- “venting” that often in the civilian world, employers view sites checking to see if employees are surfing/posting during “work” hours and checking content. I think we ALL should be smart when using these outlets. We can only protect ourselves and loved ones so much- considering Google earth posts photos of our homes and addresses without our permission anyway. Just be careful what it said/posted especially when venting because, everything that comes out of our mouths (or fingertips) can be interpreted differently by each who hear/read it.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I think removal of this tool would be yet another blow to our soldier’s morale and stress releiver. Today’s deployment and wars are tremendously different than wars past. When my dad was in Vietnam- he and my mother shared letters frequently, though delivery was mostly infrequent. Not so different in today’s technology is Afghanistan. We have to be aware that our current military has soldiers in areas where regardless of permission- they cannot communicate. I know first “mind on the mission”. These convenient communication resources offer much needed morale boosters. On the other hand, when you are home and get used to the daily social networking communication and it doesn’t come- you get worried. You become expecting of this communication. Would I rather have any communication daily than none? YES Would I rather know daily everything is ok? YES Would I rather talk daily than once weekly? YES If we had started with a call only once per week and that’s all we get, would I be ok? YES- I would be thankful for what I get and get used to it. If that call didn’t come in once/week I would definately be worried. But, it can always be worse. It has traditionally been worse. It is currently worse for many soldiers out there. They soldier on- we families too soldier on- this all is unfortunate part of war.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook- carefully as possible.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. Critical necessity…
My Space is the only communication tool my 6 yr. old son has to comunicate with his biological father. He is able to see pictures, I read him the messages of love his father leaves for him, and we are able to leave messages for the soldier on behalf of my son. Whilemy ex and I have no relationship, my son is able to see who his father is and communicate with him knowing that he was not abandoned and is still loved.
My Brother is stationed over seas and becouse of time differences, myspace and facebook bridge that gap in communications, I can read his posts and know to expect a call soon or not. By looking at the primary picture on these sights, I can know his status, if he is comming home, or when he is unable to communicate for a while, while not violating OPSEC.
Communicating with my husband (National Guard) durring deployments is primarily done with instant messanger, but we have discovered ning.com wich provides a huge amount of protection of information and is not veiwable without invitation. We plan to use this sight for our entire familiy to stay connected. Posting pictures, leaving messages, There is a chatt room. abd the benefits for our children being able to communicate with their dad is huge. My husband also has 3 children who live with their mother. She is not supportive of his carreer and will not assist in communication. Phone calls to his children durring the last deployment were “sorry, but the kids are in bed, you will have to call back.” With social media, his children can still communicate with their father unassisted.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
My 6 yr old son would not be able to communicate with his father.
My 3 step children would not have contact with their dad other than e-mail for the entire deployment.
My family would add to my burdens all the communications they wanted pased, taking up time talking to me or the kids.
Family issues could not be resolved in a timely manner becouse the ammount of communication would be cut short.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
In the past, we have used myspace and facebook. In the future we plan to use NING.COM on a private network for our protection.
Just a note, I strongly belive more OPSEC training needs to be given to both service members and family members. web 2.0 would not be an issue if OPSEC was adhered to more tightly.
When my son was in Iraq in 2006 we used e-mail and phone calls to communicate. He does have a facebook page and I recently signed on to facebook. He doesn’t have access to the internet very often to update facebook. We still communicate by phone and e-mail. Facebook is a good solution for sharing video clips and pictures. I have not used the chat.
Phone calls can be listened to and e-mail accounts can be broke into. I’m not sure there is a 100% secure solution. Facebook seems to try to keep their pages secure and does give several options to control the information others can access.
I will make it short and sweet. Soldiers like to talk about things and sometimes they take that ball and run with it. So, you run into OPSEC and COMSEC violations. That in turn creates issues which could result in the potential for harm to our Soldiers out there because the enemy knows how we operate or where we are going, etc.
That said, proper training that is part of quarterly or yearly briefings would assist in mitigating these issues. Leadership leaning forward in the saddle and reminding their troops to not talk about certain things, or specific things also reinforces the goal.
And, the social networking sites are far from the only source of problems when it comes to OPSEC issues. Phone calls home, and just plain old snail mail is easily compromised, and the info contained within is out of the Soldier’s control once it is passed from them to someone on the other end. Nobody is going to take away phone calls or letters to/from home, so lets be realistic on our approach to solving this.
In country the computers are run through a LAN which is in turn connected to a server of some sort. Monotiring of traffic through software and random spot checks on Soldiers could be done without an impact on mission. Also, access to the sites could be controlled thorugh a third-party application which would limit access to those who routinely complete the above training, and would allow case-by-case tracking whenever it is accessed for counterintelligence or syatem adminstration to check out what is being posted.
DoD should work with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter on a joint portal access through things like AKO where this monitoring and gatekeeping could be better handled. Simply cutting Joe off from the outside world only keeps honest people honest, and there is always a way around things, which would prevent our side from maintaing any positive control whatsoever.
When we attempt to see the world as it should be as opposed to how the world actually is, we set ourselves up for failure. A hamfisted approach to censorship and data control wont fix the problem that exists now. Train Soldiers better and provide them with a safe, secure method of using what already exists out there.
There are serious OPSEC and COMSEC issues now with e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, etc., why promote additional irresponsibility?
No matter how much training or briefings are given it will not matter (just look at all the COMSEC breaches and Privacy Act violations). Just go to facebook and you will find all sorts if information on missions. Enough said, being reactive is too late!!!
As several of the others have comments, the use of media today is much improved over 04 when my husband was deployed BUT on the downside, as Brian Golden stated, there are far too many breaches of security. No matter how many times soldiers are told by the command, they still feel they have to blab everything to their loved ones.
As part of a Family Readiness team, I found wives and girlfriends were getting info (without verification) from their soldiers well in advance.
If the command would pose ramifications for these breaches, perhaps they would stop. WWII had a saying, “Loose lips sink ships” for a reason.
We used IM and it was much better in 09 than in the past but we still felt that restraint was necessary in our conversations and communications.
Q1. This is our son’s first deployment to Iraq and we are thrilled when we get an e-mail or phone call, but we are dependent on Skype for our piece of mind. The first time we got to actually see him after several months was the biggest relief to our minds. We love being able to talk to him and actually see his facial expressions, so we know how he is feeling. It was a huge morale booster for him to see us and to see his dog. That made his day. He also uses Facebook to keep up with his friends from home and the support he gets from them is very important to him. It is what keeps him going.
Q2. If the military shut down the use of social networking sites I feel it would have a really harmful effect on the soldiers. This is a young military who is used to using these sites on daily basis to keep in touch with their friends and family. They are a technilogical group who use this as we oldies use snail mail. I feel that with all the suicide issues the military is facing, why shut down a lifeline for its soldiers.
Q3. We use Skype and our son uses Facebook and Skype.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I believe these are critical for moral and stress off the soldiers and their families. I talk on a daily bases to my husband who is serving an 18 month rotation overseas. A comment was left above that there is probably a smaller divorce rate when being able to communicate on a daily bases, but even with having it we have still had our problems due to the stress of being apart. It gives me a way to know that he is ok if nothing else but stopping by one of his pages to see if he logged in for the day. I then know that he is ok. I have only recieved 4 calls from him in 8 mths so phone calls are not a good form of communication on a regular basis. My children are able to communicate with him via webcam which helps them a great deal to still be able to see daddy and know he is around all though not home. He can also go to my pages to see updates on family and friends as well as have support from family and friends.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
It would be a lot harder and less personal. We do use email at times but it is more personal to us to be able to use real time communication through im and cam. I know both of ours and our childrens lives would be a lot more stressful without them.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Myspace, Tagged, Myyearbook, Facebook
I feel the media tools are very important to our service men and women. Without this media families would loose vital contact to be informed of what is going on in everyday life at home. Friends are also able to keep in contact. Although internet problems did occur daily with those in Iraq, it truly kept us in the loop that our loved one was “safe”. It takes a lot of stress out of not knowing how they are. The media help us to keep them upbeat while being so far from home. Having internet service at all places the men and women are at would be most helpful, although I know in certain places this is not able to be done.
Social media is VERY important for me to stay in touch with all of my children, and their friends, who are currently deployed. Right now, I have two sons overseas, and a daughter that recently returned from active duty.
I stay in touch with them via Facebook. During previous deployments, it was My Space.
My children for some reason, are not very good at responding to my emails and letters. But when they are posting on Facebook or similar sites, they can reach out to all of their friends and family, in a sentence or two. That is all that is necessary, for me to know they are doing OK. For me to be able to keep up with their lives, their feelings, their issues.
Internet time during deployments can be a challenge, and the available social media, don’t require a lot of time to post.
That said, I can understand the issues. But the same situations occured in previous conflicts with phones and letters. I still have a letter from my father to his family, written during WWII, with the stamp “Loose lips sink ships” on the envelope.
I hope the ability to use Facebook and similar sites are not taken away from the soldiers. It definalty is a moral booster for them.
JM Phillips
I just wanted to make a quick comment. My husband has not had to use these tools, his job in his unit does not deploy; but I work with the Family Readiness office at his base. The women/families that do have loved ones overseas so look forward to their emails and seeing them on the webcam and it puts their minds at ease, better than someone in an office telling them that their loved ones are alright and the letter is in the mail. I cannot begin to tell you just how many people who benefit from those few moments of contact from those who are deployed. It means the world to our people, please, do not let the powers that be take that away too! I also believe in OPSEC! Our servicemembers really have to care about everyones security and if needed, to punish those who do not abide by the rules. Instead of one bad apple ruining the bushel, why not plucking the bad apples privileges before everyone has to pay for it? Or better yet let the whole unit know who it was that violated security and cost them their priveleges and see how they get punished for it within the unit. Commrades can do worse than orders from headquarters sometimes.
My husband is getting ready to deploy for the second time. During his first deployment the only connection was by phone. He was at a FOB with no internet so we never had so I did not miss it. He did send letters and sent pics. This time I am hoping to use skpe so that we can webcam but that also depends on where he is. OPSEC is most important. I would have no problem giving up the internet for his safety. I think the social network is important for the FRG since we are National Guard and I live 3 hours from the armory. Again OPSEC is number 1. My husband safety is number one.
My son just got back from Iraq. I was able to communicate with him for free through my gmail home page with instant messaging. Those short occasional contacts made all the difference in the world. He called often the first few months there, but it became extremely expensive so we started the instant messaging.
He volunteered to go with another unit and I didn’t leave contact info at the deployment ceremony (my fault, didn’t know anyone, was a rookie at this and wanted to spend the last few hours with him, not with a crowd) About 2 months later I needed someone to talk with and had zero contact info. I started looking around on the internet for someone from his unit. Was successful with a myspace account and found FRG person there through that account who was extremely helpful and supportive. I had tried emailing the National Guard, emailing someone that was on the reserve base they left from, and several other resources with no response from any of them before finding this myspace account.
As a parent of a National Guard soldier who plans on deploying again, I would appreciate being able to keep in contact with him with instant messaging. Knowing he is safe helps you get through the days, weeks and months that these soldiers are deployed.
Social networking is what keeps the troops moral up and is definitely a necessity. My husband is currently deployed and we interact daily through facebook, AIM, and Skype if the internet is working well enough where he is to use it. When you walk into a VFW and tell them you got to talk to your deployed husband that morning and you know how he is doing, they are amazed at what is available now for communication. We can not depend on our FRG because they are basically nonexistent for us here so this ability to communicate is the only way our families know what is going on, if everyone is ok, and if they need anything. Our soldiers have the ability to keep up with what’s going on a home and gain support from their loved ones. When they come home the transition will be easier because they have been following daily life while they are away. When the lines for the phones are long and you have the choice of calling your wife or your mother or your friends someone misses out. With something like facebook you can catch up with everyone you know in 10 minutes. My young children are able to see their Daddy and know that he is still out there and cares about them and he has been able to watch them grow. A phone call is great, but disheartening when you are not home to receive that call and you can hear the sadness on the answering machine. With these new tools I can receive a text message and never miss that call. Limitations on new technology may help with security, but will drop moral and directly affect performance of those who are worried about home when they should have their head in the game. If it is a security concern then you might also consider the gossip straight from the wives and families who got some info through a letter or a phone call and created chaos by passing incorrect information on their own. Does that mean that the families and friends of soldiers will now have limited access of social networks as well? Or when online restrictions still don’t seem to solve the problem we have phone calls and letters taken away too? Restrictions on this topic will lead straight to failure! The military takes its toll on families enough! This would undo the efforts that have been taken to create programs delegated to building strong military families!!
My husband has been deployed twice within 4 years and it is stressful when you don’t get to hear from your loved one who is thousands and thousands of miles away.When my husband went to Iraq for a 12 month deployment in 2005,there were times when I didn’t hear from him for weeks at a time and it was extremely stressful for both of us.Now he is currently serving for another year in Afghanistan and we are able to communicate more often through phone calls,emails,letters and he even gets to see pictures of everyone on Myspace now instead of having to wait to get them in the mail.It brightens up his day to be able to see what everyone is up to. I think that any form of communication available for soldiers to use to get in contact with the ones they love should be allowed.These men,women and their families have sacrificed enough to ensure our freedom and I feel like taking these privelages away from them would be unfair.Now having said that,if the security and safety are comprimised by using these websites and there is a logical explanation of how it is being comprimised, then I would agree with not using them.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
There is nothing of GREATER value to our family with my husband deployed then our ability to use these social networking tools. Not family readiness groups, not the ability to send packages through APO addresses, NOTHING is of greater importance.
With 4 children, 2 of which are developmentally delayed, this becomes something paramount to their ability to maintain a relationship in any way, shape or form with their Father.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
It would be detrimental to us as a family and would cause great undue hardship for my children as well as my husband. With sketchy phone service and limited ability to make phone calls and emails lack of immediacy and capability of face to face interaction, social media becomes critical.
Our children are already in counseling to deal with the difficulty of their Father’s absence for the next 15 months, I could see the change of policy…. making this desperately necessary means of communication unavailable to them…. to be emotionally insurmountable for them.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We mainly use facebook and skype as a means to communicate. It has been the number one tool for our family to still feel connected and interact on a regular basis. We live in an area with NO military base, limited interaction with other military families and little support system. Having the ability to connect with my husband, even just via pictures or random updates from time to time has been the most important thing to us as far as our morale and welfare.
Q1. My husband just returned from Iraq. Although he had access to e-mail, we used Windows Live Messenger with a WebCam (not sure if that is Web 2.0) as often as we could. It allowed our 3 daughters to connect & talk with their dad. So that when he returned, our now 22-month old was able to recognize her daddy’s face & voice. We used Facebook for sharing pictures of our daughters and the activities & things they were doing as well as special videos they made for their daddy. Facebook was used to encourage my husband by our community of friends here in the states. They could easily send him messages & let them knowing they were thinking & praying for him. In addition, his own family (parents & siblings) only communicated with him by Facebook while he was deployed.
Q2. Without Facebook, my husband would have had no contact with his parents or siblings or other friends while he was deployed for over a year. Phone calls were difficult. Because the webcam quality was often poor, Facebook was used to view videos and pictures of our life here beyond the room where we used our webcam.
Q3. Facebook
My husband is currently on almost a one year deployment. We use youtube so he can see videos of his children. And we also use Facebook. The more communication for the family the better. He doesn’t tell us much about what he is doing, but he does get to see a lot of what we are doing.
My youngest son, G.I. Joe, is deployed in Iraq right now. The only way we have to get in touch with him in real time is by his cell phone, which is always not effective or over the Internet. He has this Myspace page, as do both his mother & I and a Facebook page, which I communicate with him over both of these forms of social media. Therefore, I truly believe they are assets in keeping the doors that link communications between us, open and accessible!
Thanks for your assistance in reviewing this important issue and I hope that we’ll be able to keep a line of communication open with these forms of media!!
Sincerely,
Edward A. Moore – 25th Infantry Division US Army 1972/73
My husband is preparing to deploy again. In the past we have utilized many different forms of online communications.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options? These are incredibly valuable. My husband just set up a Facebook account prior to his upcoming deployment because he knows that it is very easy for us to chat and keep in touch while he is gone. My sister just returned from Afghanistan, and we used Facebook constantly to send pictures to each other. I had a baby while she was gone, and without these social media tools, she wouldn’t have been able to see all the pictures of her niece and new nephew. I feel these are critical. I don’t like using AKO instant messenger, and never have even while I was in the Army.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas? I think that it would make an already sad and difficult time even worse for the servicemembers deployed as well as the family members that they leave behind. I am the FRG chairperson for my husbands unit, and I know that the reason the spouses in the unit are reluctant to get an AKO account because they dislike using that particular interface to communicate with their soldier.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We use Facebook and Skype most frequently. They are the easiest and the best working social mediums out there in my opinion.
Q. 1 I’ll keep this short since you’ve gotten a lot of excellent comments already. Some sort of social media is pretty close to critical. My son doesn’t post a lot but he still uses it as a way to keep updated on things, and it’s nice to have a lot of stuff (chat, photos, short notes, other things to share) all in one place. Friends his age are just not likely to email him but they do use facebook. He doesn’t even email himself that often, preferring to chat or use skype.
Q. 2 The impact would be that it would make deployment much harder on both the family members and the servicepeople. Yes, it could feasibly be replaced, somewhat, by more phone calls (keep them calling cards coming, people!) and email and attachments, but if the point is security, breaches of security can happen through those as well. The only way to avoid it would be to cut off all communication and words cannot describe how awful that would be. Case in point about security breaches: for reasons related to who he is deployed with, my National Guard son did not tell me, his wife, or anyone else back here what base he was stationed at, or what part of Iraq he is in. But then in the July squadron newsletter that goes out to all family members, his captain wrote a letter including the full name of the base in a description of how to use the Red Cross to contact servicemembers.
Q. 3 Facebook. (Also Skype and MSN Chat but those are not technically social network sites).
The Family and MWR Command is represented on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. We want to reach Soldiers and their Families wherever they are. Find out what we are doing at ArmyMWR.com. You can also follow me on http://www.Twitter.com/BGReubenJones. ~ Rdj
I’m not sure how to secure it, maybe a “Military Facebook” with OPSEC warnings posted on each page for family, friends and them to see every time they use it, maybe a maximum amount of “friends” they can add to their account, with name and relationship to military person.
It’s a stretch to say it’s critically important during deployment, but it is very important for morale on both ends, especially I think for kids whose parents are deployed.
Motomail is pretty good IF you are in an area where it’s delivered. Phone calls are great IF you get them (and so sad if you miss them) Skype is awesome, again if you can use it…not all places have access.
We use Facebook mostly, a place for pictures, wall messages, private messages that make you feel connected. It’s easy for us to post to them, easy for them to use their limited time to access a lot of “homey” stuff and give a quick reply to the group due to time constraints, or to more personal private messages.
As a Civilian Public Affairs practitioner deployed to SWA for about 3 years when all social media was blocked from military networks, I can tell you it was hard knowing close family and friends were trying to send photos/information on Utube and Facebook to make us feel better, but it was all blocked.
Knowing that this new wave of social interaction may be pulled back would be a real blow to military families. They really look forward to this personal interaction. Please allow social networks. You can “what if” this to death. Our geeks are smarter than the bad guys!
Twitter has postings from local/national media almost instantly, which gives us an added tool to help monitor news generated by us (DoD) for inaccuracy. Don’t put us back into a cave and expect us to succeed. Social media puts us out in front of the story. Skype on the battlefield does cause angst, so only use in a MWR setting…that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.
Q1. We keep in contact through Facebook daily both at home and when I travel for the military. It minimizes the feel that I am gone, only that they can’t see me or get my halp on a chore. Through Facebook we keep in contact with eachother and our closest frinds and extended family. It also redueces my need to talk to them on the phone, and that is a cost savings to us and a time saver when waiting in lines to call from the desert.
Q2. Not having access to Facebook would cause our seperation to feel more absolute. Swapping quick messages, and playing games together really helps reduce seperation anxiety.
Q3. Facebook, Yahoo IM, and Skype (ok, skype is not a social networking site, but we use it)
Q1. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed?
I think Social Media Tools are very valuable to mililtary members and families. My husband is expecting to be deployed later this year, and I can’t imagine not having the use of Facebook to communicate. I think it gives both the family members and the millitary members a since of being a part of each others lives even when apart. It’s extremely useful with the time difference. Messages can be posted anytime of day and received anytime of day which is nice, and unlike e-mail; messages are meant to be short and quick and often. I am not a fan of writing e-mails, I allways feel that an e-mail should be long and have a point to it. I also think it would help boost the soldiers spirits being able to sign on and see what their family and friends are up to. I also think the soldiers will be able to stay in touch with some people they may not normally if they had to rely on phone calls.
Q2. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I think communication would be more sparse. With the time change, I think it’s hard to allways be available when your soildier is supposed to call you and there may be a lot of missed calls. I think it is very hard to rely on phone calls.
Q3. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook.
Please keep the the Social Media Sites it is critical for our families to stay in contact when not at home, in or out of country.
My husband is deployed to Afghanistan at this time as well as some of the others on here. Not having access to Facebook for my husband would be I think detrimental to his sanity over there. When he is able to get on his computer he can see the smiling faces of his family and keep up on what is going on in everyday life over in the US. Going from being able to talk to your spouse every day whether it be at home or just being able to pick up your cell phone and call them, to not being able to talk to them at all is a HUGE deal. My belief is that even though we cant talk to them on the phone, we can still send them our love and show pictures of our loved ones that they can see right away instead of waiting a week to 10 days for the package of pictures to arrive at their base. Or if at all. And it is also a good way for them to let us know that they DID receive our care packages, and to let us know what kind of stuff they need. And facebook doesnt cost anything. My husband may not be able to tell me what is going on over there, (and I really don’t want to know) but at least I can get a smiley face or a note from him over facebook to let me know he is still there.
My son is deployed to Afganistan.He is 19 and this is his first deployment.I do not know what we would do without facebook.All of my family is on it and everyone is able to share with my son information from home,and we get to see what each other has to say.I am also in constant contact with other military families at home and their soldier that is deployed.I understand the concern,but as a mother I love the constant contact with my son even though I cannot talk to him everyday.
Skype and facebook have saved my sanity and provided comfort for both my husband and I!! Being able to SEE and HEAR my husband is all that keeps me from crumbling! Deployment is so emotionally hard to deal with. Fear, anxiety, depression, and anger are an everyday emotion for many. Also the children’s emotions are eased when the look forward to seeing mom or dad and having that special time with them.
Being able to take 15 minutes and have a piece of home for a soldier is extremely important for morale.
My son served in Iraq for a yr. It was very hard waiting to hear from him but very comforting once I was able to talk and see him daily on the internet. It felt more like he was at work. I had a son in the navy during Desert storm waiting to hear from him on a daily basis was very diff, it can tear a family apart, espicially if you have already lost a child. My family is a military family, father mother brothers sister…..we believe in protecting our country, we all gave w/o asking. Is it so hard to provide a secure site for our daughters, sons,husband and wives? It allows them more confidence in themselves, emotional support amongst other things!
We want to examine the importance and relevance of Web 2.0 capabilities to Military families and get your view of its impact. We have three questions we would like to pose for discussion:
Q. I feel this is a very crucial necessity. With out the skype, facebook, or MSN Messenger I would not have been able to keep my sanity while my husband was deployed. And when he is away on military business it keeps us in touch. Its not just useful it is a necessity to have for both teh family back home adn for hte spouse tha tis deployed. or family member that is deployed.
Q. I think that in the long run if you were to take it away you would have alot more divorces thatn you already do. and familys falling apart. People, left behind and those deployed you to connect to there signifcant others and family membs in order to keep there sanity.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
I use skype mostly becuase of its camming capabilites. My husband and I are able to see one another, while chatting and its the next best thing to him bing there seeing him and hearing his voice at the same time. We also utilize FAcebook, and MSN messenger. And since we play online games together We play World of Warcraft in order to communicate that way. It helps him to relax and then he can get back to doign his job knowing we are ok and that we are here and waiting for his return.. Yes a letter is nice but seeing him is so much more personal.
When my husband deploys Facebook is often our only means on electronic communication. On his first deployments my e-mails were not getting to him so although I wrote to himevery day, he had no idea I was writing at all. But with facebook I am able tow rite him messages and they always get to him, it was the best way for me to get in touch, his base didn’t have Motomail and sending letters was slow and sometimes I needed him to know something sooner than that. Also, it allows us to send each other pictures, he likes to see that I am doing well when he’s gone. We do not have kids but I know for our friends that do have kids it means a lot to their dad when he’s gone that he can see his kids opening presents on Christmas and their birthdays . Being abole to share videos is also helpful because parents miss a lot when they are home. Banning these social sites will probably lower the morale of our troops because it cuts off a large amount of their communication with their loved ones. If they really want to have more control they should create a military social networking site that can be more secure but still allows our troops to communicate with everyone back home.
I want to say that my Husband & his Army National Guard unit just returned from Iraq a couple of days ago. Most of the soldiers who deployed had some form of communication device (ie cell phone or laptop). For those who couldn’t afford their own laptop they were easily able to use their buddy’s. I think that we are forgetting here with these social networking sites is that everyone is able to see everything posted so that takes military OPSEC completely out. Also, the thing that I especially hate about these sites is all the spam & mal-ware attached to these sites. That is pretty much the main reason I stopped using myspace. My computer would catch something everytime I would log on. I think the DoD has a perfect right & a responsibility to ban the use of these sites on military computers. I think they would be negligent if they didn’t & am surprised they haven’t before now.
That’s my $0.02 worth.
Toughen up.
The deployed members of our military do need to be able to communicate with their families and loved ones, however, for deployed members to communicate with everyone whenever they want is rediculous. If they cannot deal with being away from their families with limited communication perhaps this is not the right career path for them. If there relationships are in jeopardy because of limited communications perhaps their relationships are not as strong as they think. When did having to do things different than normal become too hard for the military and military families. What is wrong with the military focusing on getting the job done instead of keeping up with the latest news. I beleive that communication is important however i beleive that safety and focusing on the job at hand is more important. The military and families and friends should be able to find ways to communicate that do not interfere with the military doing the job at hand. To the military personnel that state they could not make it without communicating daily with their family and friends, I surely hope you are not with my loved one. It is apparant you are concentrating on home and not your job. If it is that hard for you to do your job perhaps you should seek help of some kind, and perhaps not reup when it is time. The military personnel gets enough bad pr without flaming the fire. It is apparant that commitment does not mean the same to everyone. Apparantly commitment to some only means when it is made easy. Commitment has to be made by both the military and the family.
If limited communication causes such hardship and troubles I only hope that you can learn to deal with it, as you get older and mature you will be thankful that you figured out a way to deal with it, it will help you mature as a person in other areas as well.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I think its a critical necessity in a marriage standpoint spouses are able to control crisis remotely. I never talked to my wife so much as when i was deployed. It strengthened my marriage immensely.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
On a marriage stantpoint! It all depends on how strong a marriage is and what the diposition of the couples. A strong marriage would be weakened a weak marriage would get beaten.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
I used skype most of the time as I was not signed up for myspace or facebook.
My husband was deployed to Iraq in 2006/2007. I had a one-year-old at home and was pregnant with our second child. I am a 35-year-old woman with a family and career and do not have time for social networking. That said, while my husband was deployed I did set up a Myspace account and updated it frequently because I found it was the fasted way to upload photos of our children. I also spent approximately one hour a night instant message chatting with my husband. Morale is so important for our troops and connection with home is a huge part of that positive morale. When soldiers are not on missions they have very little to do. I personally think social network sites are a big waste of time, but when all you have on your hands is time, then why not allow it? I believe many soldiers feel their lives are going on without them while they are deployed. I think allowing them to participate in social network sites keeps them connected to their “real” lives.
During deployment, we communicate using email and SKYPE and I can receive text messages. I wish my text messages were accepted there.
This is our second long deployment and the availability of improved technology to support regular communication has been extremely important. We’ve received PCS orders during this deployment. I’ve sold our current home and bought a house in our new location. Without the ability to communicate regularly this would not have been possible.
I hope that you continue to allow access to our soldiers through these forums. My son just had his first deployment and it haelped me to stay in contact with him. I was able to know that he was safe even when the media told us that they were being attacked. He and his brother are both scheduled to be deployed again soon and just being able to know that I can chat to them when they have time is a load off of our minds for those of us at home.
We used AOL IM to chat but hope to be able to use web cam capabilities in the future.
Many of our troops have come to rely on the emotional support provided through the use of web 2.0 social media tools. I was one of them. When I was stationed in Germany, I kept track of my family through instant messaging, facebook, myspace, twitter, and youtube. This was and currently is my main means of communication to my family. Telephone conversations are extremly costly, so much so, I don’t use it as a primary source of communication.
To me it’s all about the warfighter. For a warfighter to do his job well, he needs to be emotionally, physically and spiritually ready. It’s hard to focus on tasks when you have not emotionally connected to your family in some fashion for a given amount of time. These social networking sites provide a healthy emotional environment and improve moral for the warfighter, so they can complete their mission and have their mind on tasks at hand.
The web 2.0 media tools are essential in providing a emotionally healthy, warfighter. Ready to fight.
To me having the social networking is a nice addition. A critical necessity is something you cannot live without. My husband is deployed to Iraq and we talk on Yahoo Messenger several days a week. It is wonderful to be able to hear his voice. Our children love to talk to him as well. The webcam also works fairly well depending on the internet that day. My husband was already in the military when we married and that was 21 years ago. I know that our marriage is strong and could survive his deployment without the use of the internet. Many soldiers and families from past generations did not have this luxury. Even with the internet use we still write letters to each other. There is just something romantic about writing down my feelings and mailing it in a perfumed envelope. Families should not become dependent on these sites. Marriages should not fail over any restricted use of them. I only use them with all of the security and privacy settings set to high. We only use it to communicate with each other, not everyone we know. If the use of these sites poses the slightest danger to my husband then I expect the military to protect him by restricting their use. I would rather write my husband a letter and know he is safe to come home to continue our life together than have our commnication be a security risk. I am very happy and proud to be a supportive military wife. I LOVE MY SOLDIER. GOD BLESS AMERICA.
I think access to the internet for our troops to stay in touch with family and friends, is an essential part of keeping “family” and close ones near and helps for a less stressful environment for them all around! I remember my dad in Vietnam when I was little.and the anticipation of the “reel to reel” tapes..came far and few, but excited to receive them. As a mom of a young military man…I can’t imagine not having the communication with my son..especially in this crazy work world..it’s brings so much comfort as a mom, for our family to have that connection, the stress of him being away gives us a little since of “he’s ok”..Not only the troops, but those who love them need that connection..and as they’re taught God, and Family..lets keep it that way…So, many things they are sacrificing themselves for our freedom, give them the freedom to connect.
Proud Mom of a USMC
Internet access is huge. We’ve been at this for some years now and have gone from post cards and rare phone calls to internet chat. It is awesome to have the immediate gratification that comes with the internet. We’ve done yahoo chat in past deployments, now we both have facebook which we may be able to utilize for the next deployment. But the chat with a webcam is great, he can see us, we can see him, makes it so much more personal. I can say that it was something that he looked forward to, seeing us all, real time and interacting. I think the deployment was easier on all of us because we knew we could reconnect and still be involved in each others day, even if it was thousands of miles away. Will use these services again next time for sure. ~Courtney~proud USAF wife
We are a free country…Web 2 gives us that freedom..If it weren’t for my facebooking with my son and his comrades…I think I would have had a major meltdown instead of the tiny ones…I know it’s not always the easiest thing to read and see the destruction…but at least you are connected…It’s also a way to keep morale up by keeping in immediate touch….I did web cam…Facebook…My Space and e-mail to stay in touch. I can’t imagine how bad life would have been without it…It is a necessary tool…And also our right…An anxious mother…
Dear All,
Three of my very good friends are over in Iraq. These men are a huge part of our neighborhood. Myself and my family are very close to these men. We have been able to keep in contact with these men by facebook and skype. In fact, on the 4th of July we had a neighborhood picnic and were able to thank these men personally. We brought them to our picnic and, for a little while, knew they were ok. My father is a retired veteran. He served in WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam. My mother often tells us that she thinks it is great that the family and friends are able to communicate with the soldiers. My father, even though he really doesn’t understand it, thinks it is great. My mother has shared stories about how she waited long periods of time for letters, hoping and praying that my dad was ok.
Please do not take away this form of communication. All of us appreciate it so much!
Thank you for your time,
Victoria Knapp
Facebook, skype, other forms of media allow people to connect easily with soldiers overseas… they pose little threat to allow- as long as the soldiers maintain the confidentiality of sensitive data as directed.
Thanks.
this is awful.terrible mistake by dod.
Social media tools for who are deployed is a critical necessity.
There would be a big NEGATIVE IMPACT to families an soldiers if social media tools were not available to military members serving over seas. This is the only means that my Grand-Children and myself are able to see Our Soldier and this has a Huge Impact on our ability to cope with him being absent from our daily lives. With all of the public media telling of our troops being injured or killed; it is a relief to be able to see that it wasn’t your soldier.
When communicating with my soldier while deployed, I most frequently use Yahoo Instant Messenger.
Please keep this form of communication open. There are means available that can plug the security holes.
My husband will be coming home soon from a year long deployment. It was the first time we have been seperated for more than 3 weeks in 15 years. It was incredibly difficult for us and most of all, for our children. The ability to use Facebook and Skype as tools to maintain communications was key in helping to maintain a connection with him while he was away.
Not only were we able to communicate via this medium on a mostly daily basis, but he was able to chat with multiple people at the same time. Our children could be on their Facebook accounts simultaniously and chat with Dad. Messages could be sent back and forth using the Facebook inbox, and my husband’s ability to update his status was a key factor in maintaining the whole family’s morale. Even if we couldn’t connect live that day, seeing his posts telling us all how much he missed us and loved us and knowing that as of 2 or 3 hours ago, he was alive and well meant more than anyone who has not experienced it can possibly imagine.
We utilized Skype, Facebook (mostly), and AIM as well as Yahoo! for regular email.
We took great care, knowing that most of these were public forums, to maintain OPSEC at all times and never, ever posted locations or timelines or activities. Perhaps the military might look into a Military based version of Facebook that would have all of the same benefits while including additional benefits of keeping Family Support Groups in touch with each other, and giving the entire Military Family a means for communicating with each other, sharing tips on boosting morale, care packages, posting pictures and dealing with the issues that crop up with children and school, etc. I could see it being very good for older children and teenagers communicate with each other to work through issues that are unique to military children. With it under the perview of the DoD, security measures could be taken that would help ensure a safe and threat free internet enviornment.
The social media tools are essential for the moral of all of our Armed Forces. Lets keep them but make them more secure
My daughter, her husband, and my son are in the midst of their year long deployment. Phone calls are difficult at best. Texting works if they can get a cell phone that works. Seeing them post on Facebook means I know they are there and well, even if the message isn’t for me. I can send mail to the FB inbox, knowing there is one site they can quickly check to get an update on all their family and friends, as well as check for individual messages. Web chats are ideal for us – to see and talk with a loved one is irreplaceable. As a former Navy wife, in the days of waiting 6 weeks for a written letter, the ability to see my children’s “handprint” on the social network eases my worries. I certainly understand the security concerns, and realize that the mission comes first. Please understand that the social networks meet a vital need, and help maintain that contact, even if the format has to change. My other daughter is headed off to a 6-month deployment soon. Please help us stay in touch.
My husband is currently overseas and the websites like facebook and myspace allow him to talk to multiple family members and friends. Our internet communication is our best communication due to the faulty phone calls. Please I beg you, do not take that privilege away. It is our key to communicate.
I have a private blog that my husband is able to access since he is currently serving in Afghanistan. He gets to see pictures of his kids who are little right now but will be that much bigger when he gets home. He isn’t able to use facebook because he doesn’t have access to his own personal computer right now but that would be in invaluable tool for us as well. We used Skype when he was in training in the States but haven’t been able to use that since he went to Afghanistan. That was so wonderful for my kids to see their daddy on the computer in addition to talking to him. Hopefully, he will be able to get his internet up and running soon so we can utilize these internet tools to keep in contact during his deployment. It would be so sad for all military families, myself included to restrict these options for staying in contact with loved ones.
Social networking is essential to the moral of our servicemembers both deployed and living overseas. No one has mentioned the importance of school children having access to these tools while at school. All DoDDS school computers are so locked down that students can’t instant message, use face book, or use commerical E-mail accounts while at school. DoDDS is moving backwards in communications in order to “secure” the networks. The assumption is everyone has access to a computer at home. Access should be available to family members around the clock. Think what an uplift it would be for a child to get an instant message from mom or dad while at school.
Social networking communications via IM messaging, e-mails, Facebook, etc. I believe are essential means for the service member to have a form of communication with their family & friends….they need all the positive contact that they can get, not to mention what it does for their loved ones back here at home! My son was deployed in Baghdad for a little less than a year, we communicated almost daily & by the end of our communication at any given time…I could tell the difference it had made…for both of us! Us being able to actually “see” each other via web cam was the highlight of a visit, although unfortunatly that couldn’t happen often as there was always a loss of signal if we were both on cam at the same time, so we took turns…
Taking away such a huge sorce of communication/connection between these soldiers & their loved ones would be a terrible thing…they feed off the positive support that “live” communication brings…My soldier is home now, but my step son is still there as well as coutless others….don’t take their life line between home & hell away!!
Hooah!
Christine
I wouldn’t necessarily mind if something like that was done. I don’t think that banning facebook, twitter and other social networking sites is the answer. Are you talking about while the service member is on duty or off? My husband has the privilege of having his own laptop while he’s deployed so we’re able to utilize skype and its wonderful chatting capabilities. I do not think its fair to ban the other social networking sites because some service members don’t know how to keep their traps shut regarding OPSEC. In our society it is acceptable and almost necessary to rely heavily on the internet for means of contact. On a personal note we can’t rely on “snail mail” anymore. Packages, and letters are getting delayed longer and longer despite the fact that we’re so deep into a war that the postal service both on bases and in the main stream public should be able to adequately deal with the volume of mail its seeing.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
This is extremely valuable to me, personally and as the site administrator for my son’s unit’s FRG Facebook and MySpace pages. On the personal side, we will be using not only Skype to communicate while my son is in Iraq, but also Facebook chat and other instant messaging programs. Our family used Facebook quite a bit to communicate with my nephew while he was in Iraq. As the site administrator for our FRG’s pages, Facebook especially has been a wonderful tool for keeping the community and family and friends updated about the unit and what the FRG is doing for our soldiers. I am extremely mindful of OPSEC and have rules posted on both sites about Do’s and Don’ts of posting. Questionable posts are deleted by me and the poster is advised about what they did. We’ve even cautioned our people with regards to their personal sites, and I have sent messages to individuals who have things posted on their personal sites, that might possibly cause problems. I know our soldiers appreciate the FRG sites as it will allow them to keep up with events that will be occurring back home and there will be pictures and hopefully videos for them to see what their families are up to while they are deployed. I feel that these are critical resources for not only us as families, but also for our soldiers.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I think there would be a tremendous impact to the families and soldiers if these tools were not available. With International phone rates being what they are, these social networking sites have become a primary means of communication for many, because it’s readily available and inexpensive.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We use and will be using Facebook, MySpace, AOL and Yahoo. In addition to Skype.
[...] encourage users to visit the forum and scroll through some of the responses. They paint an amazing picture of how consumer Web 2.0 [...]
To reach the more techno savvy and younger generation, we have to change to keep up. To keep in touch with my daughter and her military husband who is on a remote assignment, I use Facebook, MySpace, AOL and Yahoo and Skype. If these social networks are used to enhance political campaigns, i.e., Obama, then what is the issue for military reach out and reach back?
I think the use of Facebook, MSN Live and many other social mediums are a huge benifit to many military families. Video chatting with my husband in Afghanistan with our 4 children has greatly affected their adjustment to Daddy being away. Seeing him and hearing his voice knowing he is ok is just what they need. Reading an e-mail to them is ok but for a child seeing and hearing is real to them . They have also enjoyed taking pictures of their own activities and posting them on Facebook for him to see so he isn’t out of the loop of what is going on at home. WIth the internet connection problems he is unable to view these with regular email because it takes so long to down load his internet times out. It is also unaffordable for most of us to talk regularlly using a cell phone as we are use to so the internet keeps our lines of communication open. Removal of these resources to the soldier and the family would decrease morale, increase stress and not overall be a good thing.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Personnally, social media tools are a useful addition to my communications with my family. But I’m an old Soldier that was raised on nothing more than snail mail when I was a young Soldier. However, in talking with many young Soldiers and their families, it is my perception that the Web 2.0/social media tools are a critical necessity to their expectations and experiences for long distance communications with loved ones in the 21st century. Although, the potential security threat is real, my recommendation would be to focus our policies and counter measures on enabling Soldiers and their families to retain this capability…at least for the more popular sites.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
The impact is obvious….lower quality and quantity of communications…ergo lower quality of life for Soldiers, DoD civilians, contractors and their families. Plus, risk has increased that these personnel will now seek out other routes to utilize these sites (ie off-post cafe’s, personnaly purchased satellite access, etc), which will increase DoD’s risk of information spilling into the private sector, because they now have no visibility or control as to what is being sent across these social networking sites with respect to classified information.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, AoL, Twitter
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Web 2.0/social media tools are absolutely necessary – whether deployed, OCONUS, or CONUS. I use facebook, myspace, skype, and vonage to keep in touch with family and friends back home. I never use phone cards. I haven’t seen most of my family/friends in 2 1/2 years and if I didn’t have the ability to use facebook and talk on the internet I would have completely lost touch.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
Lack of access would mean less communication and the break down or end of relationships.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
I use facebook most for friends and siblings, and internet phone service (vonage, skype) for parents and my spouse.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
My husband is currently in Afghanistan. I cannot even write to you how important my husband being on websites like Facebook has kept our family united. No one could understand what an impact internet access can have on a family until you are left behind with a four year old and a baby on the way. Every picture and email sent helps me stay strong. Phone service there is unreliable and there are times when we do recieve a call unfortunately my son is at school and he misses it. Pictures and Email seem to be the only reliable source of communication we have and it would do nothing but tear the families apart here…..
Social Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are a great tool for service members to keep in touch with family and friends while they are performing their great service to our nation around the world. Like some of the other comments, these services provide much more intimacy and immediacy over email and other communication types when phone and email capabilities are limited. I agree that many people sometimes put more information on their profiles than are necessary or desirable by our Armed Forces and DoD standards, but that can be controlled to an extent. I do not believe that these services impact negatively on our Armed Forces or network; I would rather think that they improve the morale and effectiveness of our service members when they can effectively communicate with their loved ones and friends.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
My husband is a sergeant in the Army National Guard, and he has been on three deployments and will head out on his fourth sometime in the near future. We have been married 5 years now, only two of which have we actually lived together as husband and wife. If you look at it that way, we are still practically newlyweds, but newlyweds with a three year old, an almost two year old, and another due next spring. Before we had kids, we would IM through AKO and get occasional phone calls. It was rough, but I treasured those conversations. This last deployment, we used a social networking site with IM capabilities as well as Skype phone communications so we could talk and while watching each other on webcam for free. He got to witness his daughters growing up without him, but still stay connected, because they could give him kisses on the computer screen and hear his voice. Without those social networking capabilities he would have missed those first steps, first words, and hearing “I lub you daddy.”
Are these social networking sites critical necessities? That depends on who you ask. My husband said it was very hard watching us on video one day and going on a mission the next, but he wouldn’t trade those moments either. For the families, especially as one starting out, it is important for them to feel like they are still a part of each other’s lives. For our children it was even more important, because they cannot connect through words on a page. Our oldest was one when he left and two and a half when he came home, and because she was able to see him and talk to him, she knew who he was and ran to him yelling, “Daddy, Daddy,” when we picked him up at the airport. Is that a critical necessity? To us it was, but to others it may seem a useful addition, but my babies knew their daddy was more than just a picture when he came back to them.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
They would miss out on so much. The military knows just how important it is to a soldier’s well-being to keep the families happy and thriving, and these social networking sites help to make that possible. They can talk to each other on their own time without having to wait in a long line to get to talk for fifteen minutes. They can see and hear each other, or even a whole room full of people for a child’s birthday party. They can keep in touch with friends, extended family, and coworkers in a manner more in tune with how they would normally communicate with them, and that means a lot to all involved. If these tools were not allowed, my husband would only have been able to call periodically, write a handful of letters, and missed out on years of the goings on of our family. He wouldn’t have heard his baby’s first words or seen her first crawls and steps. His friends and family would have missed even more. How would that have impacted him? He would have marched through it just fine while he was there, because he is a good soldier, but he would have felt it when he realized how much he missed when he came home. As for the rest of us, we are not trained soldiers, and the impact would have been much greater on us. As a married couple having spent most of our few years together separated by oceans and continents, we could have ended up another statistic in the deployment divorce rate with that important communication.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Last deployment it was Myspace because of the Skype messaging. Now we use Facebook, and will hopefully still be allowed the voice and video chat that comes with these social networking sites.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
This is critical to the well being of all military men and women and those waiting state side for them. You can’t always talk on the phone and email is nice but nothing is better then instant contact with your soldier. Letters are great but take weeks to get anywhere.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
This would hurt morale and create problems with service members and their families. If internet social tools were taken away then those state side would want more phone calls and we all know how difficult it is to call and get a good connection without a major delay. Plus it saves our soldiers money because the internet is free but phone cards aren’t.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We used Skype daily. It was so nice to call my spouse over the internet and sleep with the cameras on. It made each day of the deployment a little easier to get through.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I am not sure what you mean by “Web 2.0/social media tools”?? If this is in reference to web-interaction via email, chat programs (ICQ, Yahoo, etc), networking sites (i.e. facebook, twitter, myspace) – and whether or not this is a critical or necessary component of interaction – then absolutely it is.
My husband is in Iraq. This is the first time I have ever been married, let alone the first time my husband was swept away from me for longer than a couple weeks a year. It is critical, to me, that we are able to chat via Yahoo Messenger. Generally, he talks and I type since I don’t have a microphone (and I can type as fast as he can talk). Aside from that, this is the fastest way for us to communicate. We are able to email each other as well – which isn’t as immediate but is necessary for both of us – for our sanity. I think without constant communication – my husband may come home adifferent man – he may come back with post traumatic stress disorder – which has afflicted so many of our soldiers. If the men in Vietnam had constant communication with loved ones, I wonder if the men/women who served would have been psychologically healthier.
We also use Facebook to communicate – he uses it mainly for communication with his family since he really only makes an effort to call and talk to me – I relay that information and his wellbeing to the family through that public forum. He will occasionally buy a phone card – very $$$pricey, and the quality of the call is lacking due to the delay – so we rarely get our moneys worth from a phone call.
I am very thankful I even get to speak with him instead of waiting months for a paper letter like my mother and grandmother had to when their husbands were deployed. The only issue I have with the internet access the soldiers have is that they have to pay $20 a week to have it… and they are not allowed to SHARE. This is a bit ridiculous. Why they are not allowed to share is beyond me… they are already sacrificing so much… these things should just be provided.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I think a lot of divorces, suicides, and other psychological fall out would be eminent. I feel that constant communication alleviates the stress that is created when loved ones cannot communicate even the most mundane details of their lives. Picture a wife/girlfriend who got pregnant just before her husband/boyfriend was deployed… he’d have NO interaction with the process and would come home to a random baby in the room. This happened to my nephew. He had absolutely NO bond with the child, resulting in a single parent after he left his wife – he had dramatically changed.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Yahoo chat. Facebook. Hotmail email. All free devises. So should the internet be for servicemen/women.
Question 1: How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Web 2.0/social media tools are not only valuable to military families with loved ones who are deployed, they are invaluable, because they reach across the miles and war zones and bring a sense of normalcy and home to both the deployed Servicemember and the family left at home. A little boy or girl can tell their father or mother what they did in school and share pictures via Facebook and the father or mother can respond in kind with “I love yous” and other comforting words to assure their child that they are doing fine and will be coming home soon. Regular mail simply can’t do that, and with a renewed and proper emphasis being placed on the entire well-being of Servicemembers and their families, Web 2.0/ social media tools have become a critical necessity in easing the stress of deployments and the transition back into normal family life. For those reasons alone, it is a critical necessity and not merely a useful addition to my options.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
While familes and deployed Servicemembers would do what they’ve done time and time again and adjust to the lack of Web 2.0/social media tools, the impact would be hugely negative as a greater sense of worry and uncertainty would carry throughout deployments as postcards, letters and packages pass like ships in the night only giving outdated updates of what’s going on at home and how the Servicemember is doing overseas. Little boys and girls would find themselves hurrying home to check the mail only to be disappointed that a letter or package hasn’t arrived, and mothers and fathers would have to explain that the slowness of the normal mail system and how Mommy or Daddy didn’t have time to write or send the letter in the mail. As families and Servicemembers have become accustomed to using Web 2.0/social media tools, not allowing them would be a major step backwards in the support of deployed Servicemembers and families.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
Facebook is the no. 1 option as it provides the best venue for communicating with deployed Servicemembers. The rest aren’t nearly as effective or user-friendly in doing so.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Quite honestly, there are many free communication options available to families with deployed loved ones. My husband returned last year from Iraq and it took us awhile to discover exactly what was available to us. We tried using our existing cell service which quickly turned into a financial nightmare before we realized our email accounts already held the capabilities we needed. Through yahoo, hotmail, myspace, or facebook we could talk for hours at no cost (except the cost of a $15 microphone headset).
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
I never knew this option existed. We probably wouldn’t have used it even if we had known.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
We mainly used our yahoo email accounts.
A special portal should be created for family only, not the public. Some things written online are not very kind regarding our military members, especially on Facebook or MySpace.
The cost and the burden upon the strapped networks should be a concern to the DoD regarding the social networks. Just keeping the computers up and running for daily work flow on a base is hard enough, let a lone in desolate, isolated areas. That is something few people realize.
Regarding JudyAnn’s comment: I think there are already a few special portal options offered by the military. Perhaps the DoD isn’t advertising them well enough? Immediate family can get accounts on private sites such at Army Knowledge Online (AKO), Air Force Crossroads, Military OneSource, and even Websites For Heroes. In fact, I’ve noticed that many Army Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) have pretty active websites on AKO.
The only problem with these sites is that they’re for immediate family. Anybody who’s close to their extended family — or has friends who are as close as family — probably wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with everybody they want to.
The great thing about most of the social networking tools out there — Facebook, MyFamily.com and Ning.com, to name a few– is that they give you the freedom to pick and choose your community — in much the same way that the Websites for Heroes service gives you the capability to pick and choose who’s allowed to see your site.
Although there are people writing not so nice things about the military out in the social networking arena, the beautiful thing about how most of them work is that you don’t have to read the drivel if you don’t want to. If you have your settings right on either MySpace or Facebook, you should only be reading the stuff your own friends and contacts write. If you don’t know how to adjust your settings, visit Google, or check out http://www.howtoprimers.com/myspacesafetytips/safetyTip11.shtml and http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options? Social media tools supplement other tools such as phone, video posts, and NIPR email.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas? Since there is a reliance on the social media tools there would be an impact. However there was a time when ’snail mail’ was the primary method (e.g. WWII, Vietnam, Desert Storm). Soldiers and Families should adapt to the tools available to them. Not every Soldier will have ammenities in combat. Instead of relying primarily on social media rely from strength within.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently? email (every couple days) and DSN phone (once a week)
I find social-networking sites to be very valuable, but I don’t know if you could call them crucial. I know military families have handled the same situation w/o social networking sites for many generations and if we had to, we could do the same. However, it does make a world of a different to be able to communicate instantly on a regular basis when there isn’t time for phone calls. My brother is deployed and the only contact that I have with him is through Facebook. He just has too many other family members to call and it’s easier for us to stay in touch that way. My husband will be deploying soon as well, leaving me with a 2 yr old and a newborn to raise alone. We’ve written letters before when he was gone, but it’s difficult to communicate with a 3+ day delay. It can be excruciating to wait on a letter when the mail is backed up. While my husband and I don’t communicate using Facebook, I use other online community sites to connect with other spouses of deployed servicemen and women to ask advice on how to handle situations that are unique to our position as temporary single parents. I have no other friends that are in this position and it helps to know that there are people out there that understand what I’m going through and can provide support and advice. These can be helpful for those deployed as well for finding help in dealing with their separation as well. Sometimes it’s more helpful/valuable to get advice from someone you don’t know or are standing in front of because there is no bias based on your current situation that moment. In other words – you can let go and be more honest about how you’re feeling because you don’t have to deal with face-to-face criticism.
Q. Valuable ro not this is the immediate future of communication. With that being said nothing excites me more than the possiblities this brings. We don’t deal with a lot of deployed service members here but the prospect of showing a Soldier their child’s recital or baseball game, allowing a couple ot have a conversation from thousands of miles away, etc. It is more critical than a telephone, partially because it can serve as one.
Q. This is a loaded question. the Armed Forces would be fine mostly because service and family members have survived a majority of its exsistence without these tools. So the Army would survive fine. Plus suicide rates and divorce rates are as high as ever so in the large, by the numbers view, not much may change. However on the individual level, the cost of not having these tools would be devestating and would drag morale down signifigantly.
Q. Have not had to deal with this, but it would probably be FB.
Q. Value & benefits of social media tools to deployed members of military families?
A. Facebook is becoming the only way I communicate with my friends and family. I am more intouch and connected now then ever with my family, my friends, and even my alumni associations. Not ‘critical’ but WOW what a difference it makes!
Q. Impact if social media tools were NOT available?
A. Less connection to those they love and those people who really support them emotionally.
Q. Which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. Been some time for me as my husband is retired, but if there had been a Facebook in the dark ages… that is my pick.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
Web 2.0./social media tools are in fact a critical necessities for the military family during deployments and reintegration. It is my belief that providing the deployed and their loved ones with tools and resources that allow them to stay in touch 24/7 is detrimental to the overall well-being of the service member and therefore, the success of the mission. However; more important than the tools themselves is the security element of the resource. The world today is so technologically focused which is convenient in various ways but that also allows for security intrusion/hackers, etc. In order to eliminate any chance for security breaches the developers of social media tools should first and foremost provide security measures that would prevent any type of security violation. Providing the service members and their loved ones a means of safe and secure communication should be a priority for the DoD.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
It is my belief that providing the deployed service member and their loved ones with tools and resources that allow them to stay in touch 24/7 is detrimental to the overall well-being of the service member and therefore, the success of the mission. However, I also believe that advanced security measures must be in place to protect the communication between the service member and their loved ones.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently? My service member has not been deployed since 2006 so we did not have this option. We did communicate with Yahoo when time would permit.
When I initially developed the post regarding the use of Web 2.0 Capabilities by Military Families, I wasn’t sure what to expect. After reading your comments and better understanding the greater impact on the Military members and families, I could only wish that thousands of your voices can be posted on this site sending a significant signal of the operational value and benefit of Web 2.0 capabilities. Let’s use this blog as a pathway to shine a brighter light on this issue.
Encourage others to speak out. I certainly will.
I think the use of the internet and sites like Facebook are essential to families, not just in the case of deployments (that’s when it’s critical) but also everyday use. We make wonderful friends quickly when we go through military life, and this is how we can keep in touch on a daily basis. Ou children have to say good-bye to friends routinely, and this helps them to feel like the time they spent nurturing a friendship wasn’t just wasted. We have friends all over the world, and they don’t feel so far away anymore.
If it were not for social networking sites such as Facebook, deployments would be a lot harder on our family, especially our children. Having Daddy post a picture helps my children get through the hard days. Skype is a lifesaver. Talking to their Daddy overseas helps them know that he is still with us and it keeps them from thinking bad of the military for taking him away. They know it is his job and he misses them. I feel almost bad about the technology we spouses have today. Back in the day it was everything to just get a letter once every few months. We are very lucky and the tools we have now are priceless.
I think what Jennifer said above (in number 2) is important . We all take a minute or two during the day to call home and check on our family (when possible). Sometimes we shoot off an email to our spouse or parents to pass on some information or to ask a question. The Internet is another communication medium – and becoming more primary than even the telephone nowadays. Social media is the new telephone. You don’t have to wake up someone to ask how their day is and you’ll get your reply maybe the next time you log on. To ban social networks is like banning work email or the phone for ANY personal use. It just doesn’t make sense to pretend something doesn’t exist. The best success will come out of new tools and/or new rules that help us use these correctly. They aren’t going to go away but instead evolve into more advanced tools.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. I think the various social media tools are far more than just “useful” — though I am not sure I could say they are “critical.” Semantics aside, I firmly believe the military should embrace the new social media wholeheartedly. I know as a dependent overseas with an often-deployed husband, being able to communicate with my husband and our families back in the U.S. has made a huge difference in the quality of life for both of us. That, in return, means my husband is better able to fulfill his mission, and I am better equipped to support him.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. Currently, social media tools are NOT available to my husband and his fellow Sailors when they are deployed. We HATE this, for so many reasons! Our communication is limited to infrequent, staticky, frustrating phone calls (which are, of course, not secure in the least!) and occasional e-mails via the Sailors’ official e-mail accounts. After being overseas for almost four years, I can assure you that lack of communication and contact with our Sailors is a MAIN cause of dissatisfaction with living overseas. I can’t tell you how many marriages I see splinter, suffer and fall apart due to loneliness and lack of communication.
Also, I am the webmaster for CFAS, and we recently were forced to remove our classified ads from the base Web site. We no longer print a base newspaper for economic reasons, and for three years, we’ve used our Web site as an electronic newspaper. It’s the best form of communication, as less than 40% of the residents of CFAS are on base and able to receive the base “Command Channel”, and our radio station is not available in many locations due to the mountainous terrain.
Suddenly, our classified ads and many of our community announcements are no longer allowed to be on the official Web site! Our only option has been to move these things to Facebook, where now our Sailors cannot see them. There has been a great deal of frustration, and many complaints, since now none of the deployed Sailors can see the classified ads and community announcements.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. I would use Facebook, if my husband and his fellow Sailors were able to access it! I use Facebook, Skype, and various IM programs to reach family and friends back home.
I actually am a Information Assurance Manger in the Army reserves and i’ve worked on several CERTS, so I can speak from a strong Information Assurance background. I’m a 25B and I’ve been one for over 13 years. I use Social Netowrking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Aside from the obviouswith regards to those sites They provide excellent resources for service members with regards to networking and benefits that service members may not be infored about like how to use your Tuition Assitance how build a resume for civilian employers. Even if you block it Soldiers can still use it via MWR, USO centers, and home. Long as they don’t compromise the mission or security violations they should be good. The military could also use it against our advisaries because obviously they are using it against us!!!
network security training course…
You have got to be kidding!…
My name is Dr. Fred Medway and I am posting to address the problems that military families have faced effectively communicating with their loved ones. This is an issue that I know very well because I have been studying and researching the impact of separation and deployment on military families for more than 20 years, even before the first Persian Gulf War. I am also one of the very few psychologists who looked at this issue and who is not employed by a branch of the Armed Services or a military research unit. I have been with the Univ. of SC for more than 33 years.
As I have worked with military families over the years it has struck me that despite changes in technology and the makeup of the military, we do not know that much more about the most helpful ways for military families to communicate than we did two decades ago. There are probably two big reasons for this. First, there has not been a great amount of money invested to understand what families go through and second, there has not been any money invested to develop the communication tools that military families need. Unfortunately we don’t know the answers, at least scientifically, to the most simple questions including if sending a picture is really “worth a thousand words.”
Thus, for quite a while now, I have devoted my career to helping military families, particularly those in the Guard and Reserves, stay in touch effectively during deployment and engage in the proper reunion and reintegration behaviors so that all family members maintain a happy and productive life.
Several years ago a company from my home state of South Carolina approached me with a novel idea-would I help them develop a family communication tool based on sound psychological and developmental principles. After considerable discussion I agreed, and now, more than five years later, I see the promise that this tool, called Connect and Join has to offer; indeed, what it has to offer that is so much better, in my opinion, than plain email and various social networking sights.
Above all Connect and Join was designed from the start with military families in mind, and addresses not only the means of staying in touch but the best ways to do so when loved ones are far away and in harm’s way. In addition to being completely secure, at no cost to service members, and free from advertising, the site was developed so that the communication tools included not only the standard letters and pictures, but a whole host of arts and crafts activities to engage even the youngest children. One of my favorite parts of Connect and Join is the “calendar” which captures when messages are sent and received, and the ability of the system to save memories in an electronic scrap book (memory book) to capture home life while away. Those who communicate with the deployed are just a handful of close family members and friends, not a slew of individuals making unnecessary posts that are not always relevant to the reader.
Connect and Join is a great example of what can happen when social scientists team with product developers, military experts, families, and technicians to develop a needed tool. I have personally seen many families that rave about the system even though its use has not been that widespread so far. The federal government needs to support and carefully evaluate the impact of these communication tools on families through grants, pilot tests, and other research funding opportunities. Hopefully Connect and Join will be requested by military families as more learn about it. In the meantime, our military families need the best and most effective communication tools available. This is just a small gift that we can give them for their sacrifices.
This is a terrific post. As the co-founder and acting webmaster of a social networking website designed for the military community, I cannot tell you how many times our members have told me how important they feel our website is, and by extension, social media in general. Not only do our users enjoy the ability to keep in contact with their loved ones, they find it invaluable in finding friends in their local area who are sensitive to the challenges unique to the military community. It is so very uplifting to read the responses to this post and know that we are providing a useful, impactful service. I think it is critical for the DoD to come up with a set of rules for operating within their parameters so the services can comply and not be concerned with being blocked.
Shane
We live in a world of instant communication.
Not like WWII when my dad served.
Not like Korea when my Uncle served.
Not even like Viet Nam when my three brothers served.
Letters home during these times took days, sometimes weeks. I remember a phone call from my brother in Viet Nam when every sentence had to end in “over”. Quite an impression on a seven year old girl.
Today, my son is serving in the middle east, and I am amazed that we can communicate with each other as quickly as we can type the words. During phone calls, I can hear his voice almost as clearly as if he were calling from the neighbor’s house. I can e-mail him and know that he will get it as soon as he signs on to his computer. There are no words to describe the blessing I receive each time I have an on-line chat with him just knowing, that on that day, at that moment, he is safe. Every day, I search for him on Facebook just as anxiously as my mother used to check the mailbox for a letter from her sons. As wonderful and uplifting as this instant communication is…I would never trade it for my son’s safety!!
I am not a knowledgeable person when it comes to the intricate workings of the internet, but I do understand the severity of the risks if certain information were to be intercepted by the wrong person. I also realize that it only takes one compromising posting to jeopardize an entire mission, and so, if for any reason, this instant computer technology we have today, as wonderful as it is, was ever deemed a risk to my son’s well-being, I would, without complaint, accept other modes of communication.
My parents generation lived without the benefit of internet communication with their loved ones who were serving, and the generation before them certainly did not have this comfort. I am sure that our present day generation could learn to live without the luxury as well, if it improved the chances of getting our loved ones home to us safely.
As an Army wife I know of a lot of Soldiers and thier famlies that communicate with each other via social networking, primarly facebook but also via e-mails or instant messaging etc… Where phone calls can be rare or intrupted by bad connections etc… at least if you miss a call you can have the ability to send a longer message on line that your loved one can read when they do have access to a computer. With the hardships military families already endure being separated and the higher incident of divorce rate among military communication is vital.
As a 28-year veteran of the Air National Guard, a mother of five, and as a employee of the State Family Program Office for more than five years I have first hand experience and knowledge of how critical social networking is for our military families and more importantly for the children in these families. Interestingly enough the children of today only know the world as technology driven. With that said, we as adults need to ensure that we provide them with resources that will allow them to stay connected to friends, family and more importantly their deployed loved one through a private and secure platform. Connect and Join is that exact tool. Connect and Join is SSL secure, similar to your bank’s online site. In addition, Connect and Join has no pop-ups, is password protected, and is free to each family of a deployed service member. The families of our military service members as well as the service member themselves deserve the peace of mind of knowing they are free to share their daily activities, their concerns and struggles and their personal messages via a secure system such as Connect and Join.
I work fulltime with the National Guard. For me, social media is useful for far more than moral reasons. When a soldier becomes AWOL, much of the time, the family will help them by defraying calls and answering the door at the HOR. However, the soldier will think nothing of posting, updating, even chatting with me on Facebook, Myspace, etc. I use social networking on my home computer to complete further research in locating AWOL soldiers, I find these sites to be a very useful tool in locating and returning to drill status AWOL soldiers.
As a medical professional, I use the facebook web site to network with my colleagues. We haven’t found any other media to date that allows one person to post a discussion or present information that the whole group can see simultaneously and respond to fast and efficiently. Also while TDY or deployed the ease of use to send out a quick bullet comment to friends and family is simple and easy and allows them to comment back the same. For me it is much like the ease of texting on a cell phone but goes out to your whole contact list. I do hope that the DOD continue to support the use of social network sites.
[...] To capture your responses, DoD created the “Web 2.0 Guidance Forum” blog: http://web20guidanceforum.dodlive.mil/2009/08/06/use-of-web-20-capabilities-by-military-families/ [...]
As a mother of a son deployed right now, I believe we are truly blessed to be able to communicate with social networking. I love hearing on a daily basis (Facebook) that he is okay, and to be able to keep him abreast of how things are at home. Phone calls are best, as there is nothing better than hearing his voice however, they are rare. Letters are great, but at best take 10 days to reach each other. Selfishly, I would like to say that social networking is critical. I do believe it is very important for a soldier’s morale and a family’s peace of mind. But bottom line is his safety, and I would be devastated to know that my communicating with him on-line would compromise that. Number one is that he comes home safe and sound.
If you think the use of the Army’s web site by enlisted personnel is bad for security, you should look at the Navy’s web site for their ships. You can go to the web site of the Behome Rhichard, a helicopter assault ship and they will tell you where they have been, where they are and where their going. What ever happen to “Loose Lip’s, Sink Ship’s”. I looked at it one day and it told me that they where on their way to the Persian Gulf, Now don’t you thing a terrorist can do the same and be waiting for them?
I think that soldiers being ablr to use social networking sites is both good and bad. They do allow the soldiers to stay more in touch with what is going on at home and allows them to stay more in touch with their other loved ones who may not be considered immediate family. However, we run the risk of someone putting out information that may be harmful to soldiers and their units. I am all for soldiers being able to use social networking sites but I can see the dangers at the same time
While deployed, I used Facebook frequently to stay in touch with family and friends. While always being mindful of security and safety, I think that these new media fuctionalities are ultimately good for the military and for soldiers.
I think that soldiers can be briefed about OPSEC and use the same discretion they would use for ordinary mail. It builds community, promotes family relationships and helps tell the story of what we do every day in a way that by passed the traditional media.
My friends have learned more about our mission and the good work we’re doing from reading my FB posts, than from any news coverage or paid advertising.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed? Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
I find it invaluable. It keeps our Soldiers and Families connected and is so much easier that emailing and waiting for responses. The immediacy of getting information, news, and happenings so that our Soldiers feel they’re still a part of the community. I do believe it has become a necessity and not just a “nice to have”.
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
We’d be going backwards. I thought this was a great initiative and is relevant to the immediate communication era we live in. I think that backing out of the availability of social media capability for our Soldiers and Families would be detrimental to their ability to keep in touch easily. When you’re able to immediately chat on FaceBook or watch a posted video of your family’s most recent celebration there’s a warm connection.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
FaceBook
For some reason a lot more sites are blocked in Europe than in the Pacific for DoDea employees. Examples, hotmail, ebay, facebook, among others. As a highly educated professional I find it insulting to be treated as if I have no more maturity and self control than my 12-year-old students. I think that the firewall should be modified to allow staff members more choice in which sites we can access. Punishment before the crime is something teachers are not allowed to inflict on students, so why is it being practiced on us?
When my husband is gone, Facebook is the only way family has to communicate with him. You can only log onto AKO if you’re a soldier or spouse from my understanding. Not only that, but the password requirements for AKO are such I can never remember what mine is. My account always expires form lack of use and my husband has to sign me up again when I come across things I’d like to view on AKO. Honestly, I just do not use AKO. As a spouse, I don’t find it’s a tool I need.
With Facebook, and Twitter, families can bridge that gap between e-mails. Soldiers don’t always have time to sit down and bang out an e-mail home, but they have 30 seconds to put up a tweet or a Facebook status. This lets me know my husband is OK. Facebook is the best way we have to chat in real time when he’s gone. We haven’t had the privelage of using Facebook while my husband was deployed, but we use it very often while he’s TDY since the service has been approved by the DOD as an “acceptable” site. Other family members (like our parents) and friends can post to my husband’s Facebook wall and let him know what’s going on at home with them, and ask him how he’s doing. He can write on their walls. Facebook is where it’s at right now. Facebook is also how we share pictures. Even when my husband is home, 9 times out of 10 he doesn’t see what photos I’ve taken of our kids until I post them on my Facebook page. Facebook is how everyone I know is staying in touch. Twitter is mostly for networking. To take away these social media services now would be a detriment to morale to the soldiers and their families. Just another way the military giveth and then giveth to us up the butt.
I am not against the social networking sites…I am just concerned about the Intel that could fall into the wrong hands. If enough social networking sites have enough Intel, our service members might be placed in harms way. If there is a way to ensure OPSEC and keep the lines of communication open for families I am all for it.
I love Facebook and Yahoo, we used it all of the time when hubby was deployed. It really kept in him the loop with our four kids and their activities. He even watched us open our presents on Christmas! I don’t know how we would have coped without it. The soldiers and families just need to be educated to be careful. The old WWI and WWII sayings “Tittle tattle will spoil the battle” and “A slip of the lip can sink a ship.”
There’s a lot of information out there that’s not hard to gather if you really wanted to, and it’s not all coming from the social networking sites. Take a look at your mainstream media outlets and really read their articles. Local newspapers are printing when troops are leaving, where they’re going to train before they deploy, etc. They also publish articles about local units while they’re deployed. These articles often include where the unit is located and what their mission is. As the time nears for the unit to come home, the expected arrival date gets published as well. The news stations pick up these stories as well. Other news sources on and off line also grab these stories. If you’re going to throw around the OPSEC argument then EVERY person in this country needs to follow it beyond social media.
Our abilitiy to use different communication options, via the internet, has been critical during my husband’s deployment. We have avoided the normal stressors that we were warned about before deployment. My husband has been able to be active in family decisions; our children have been able to share their everyday accomplishments and have denoted that their father is only physically absent; and most importantly, my husband is at ease about our well-being, which allows him to attend to his duties with a clear head. If we did not have this communication option, I know this deployment would be much more stressful and could have a catastrophic affect on our family.
Due to the fact that negative information travels through our media at a lightning pace, it is important that positive and encouraging information can be accessed as quickly. I couldn’t imagine having to go through what my grandmother went through in World War II. She actually recieved my grandfather’s personal effects three weeks before any word was actually sent on his condition. My grandmother survived three weeks not knowing the fate of her husband, and I know others endured worse. Now we have the capabilites to never let that happen, so we should be able to take full advantage of them. Using the internet, we have the comfort of knowing that our loved one is safe, and our loved one can recieve immediate encouragement during a stressful time.
We actually take advantage of several options. In order to keep in contact with extended family, we use Facebook; it allows us to share pictures and encouraging words. Email allows me to relay personal information and forward updates from the unit and the FRG to immediate family that are unable to attend meetings. Yahoo messenger has very good picture quality, and our children can share pictures and accomplishments with their father. Most of all, Skype has given us a wonderful real time option. The delay is less than a phone call, and it even enabled my husband to help watch our children when I was sick one day! There is nothing that could compare to that, other than having my husband home.
I recognize that there are drawbacks. I have witnessed things, written and said, too liberally on this media that would raise security issues, but we must take the bad with the good. In this day and age, I believe the good far outweighs the bad. I pray for the government to trust our individual wisdom and discernment when using the internet, and I believe with the quality of soldiers and their families, we can be trusted.
Q1. I have found that the use of social media tools to be an invaluable resource for my husband and myself. My husband embarked on his first deployment three weeks after our wedding and this resource has given us to ability to share the joys and experiences of our first year of marriage irregardless of our location. As I prepare for his second deployment, the separation weighs less on my mind has I know with our ability to communicate online we can maintain a connection to our everyday lives. So this is indeed a critical resource to military families.
Q2. The impact on families and loved ones, who are deployed, will be immeasurable. I know that my husband depended greatly on hearing about by days to take away the depression of his current location. Given that my husband is stationed abroad and I am in graduate school my connection to the post support group is limited and these mediums have filled that gap.
A more notable example of the importance of this tool would be the endless conversations I have had with one soldier who’s return on a daily basis from the front line was filled with the reality of surviving one more day when his team mate did not.
Q3. Yahoo Messenger
We are an Active Duty Navy family with three teenagers, ages 16, 15 and 14. Their favorite mode of communication is Facebook. My husband is gone an awful lot because of his work. Facebook, including the Chat feature allows us to communicate in real time, without killing our finances by having to pay for overseas cell phone calls, which are prohibitively expensive. We can also swap photos and links to videos, all items that allow the children to share their lives with their dad unimpeaded, which is essential to the emotional well-being of any teenager, let alone one who has to move often due to military orders.
I have no interest in all this tweeting, instant messaging and facebooking; seems like too much information (info overload); better to call once in a while; maybe it’s because “email is for old folks” and I’m sure not young. What I am interested in, and seems related to this subject of keeping in touch with family while performing military duties: some commands have blocked Yahoo! mail. Specifically, AFRC . . . at least here at Pittsburgh IAP-ARS. It does not make sense to block regular commercial email service and be discussing opening up military communication systems to commercial facebooking, instant messaging and tweeting services. Those seem more of a security risk than good ‘ole commercial email. Thank you.
Q. How valuable and what are the benefits of Web 2.0/social media tools to military families with love ones who are deployed?
A. There is positive value of course; the benefit is obviously increased contact.
Q. Is this a critical necessity, or merely a useful addition to your options?
A. It may be a useful addition but it may be a security risk. There is a danger of too much information too quick. How can this be made completely secure? Are loved ones distracted from the job at hand, placing them in more mortal danger?
Q. What impact would there be to families, with loves ones who are deployed, if Web 2.0/social media tools were NOT available to military members serving over seas?
A. The impact is less contact. Too much contact can be a negative. One must get on with their lives apart and that is not as well done when there is excessive contact.
Q. When communicating with your love ones who are deployed, which social medium do you use most frequently?
A. Phone cards, normal email, and postal mail. Keep those phone cards coming, vet’s organizations and family readiness! Whenever regular commercial email access is blocked, whether overseas or at home station, there is a block on family contact.
Steve Noel Sr….
Your topic Points Of Reference ” Blog Archive ” Web Site of the Week … was interesting when I found it on Thursday searching for navy advancement as I also have articles and information posted on this subject. Thank You… Best Regards Steve Noel S…
Hello. I am extremely concerned that this change will preventother family members of deployed soldiers from communicating with us when they are away. Please don’t implement this change. I know it is a security reason, but just educate service members more about opsec rather than blocking these important networks. We need to be able to communicate with one another.