Social media has cut interaction among soldiers

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9

While social media has several benefits, it is hazardous for military from security point of view and the military must understand how to deal with it.

Stating this at a session on ‘The Latest Military Challenge — Social Media’, Col Ajai Shukla (retd) said another social media fallout was reduction in soldier-to-soldier interaction, which was key for camaraderie. Off-duty soldiers are spending more time on social media than with their buddies, he said, adding among the officers, introspection on social media was missing.

Cautioning about attempts by foreign intelligence agencies to target Indian military personnel, Shukla said there was a need to educate and understand the social media and exploit its positives as a force multiplier.

Maj Navdeep Singh said social media could be used effectively for communication across the military hierarchy and blogs within the military networks could be created for grievance redressal. Stating that sensitive information should be kept out of the domain of social media, he said it could be used to take up matters like pension grievances and implementation of welfare schemes.

Col Avnish Sharma said serving and retired officers had to be careful of their conduct and the use of the social media had to be managed effectively rather than being avoided.