Australian Army soldier Private Ben Hale from 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, provides security at the airfield in the Townsville field training area during Exercise Brolga Run on 19 October 2016.

The debate still rages as to whether social media (SoMe) is a tool for good or evil within military circles. What’s not up for discussion anymore is whether it’s going to last. A recent study on Australians’ usage of SoMe indicates 80% of the population use it; 60% use it every day; 30% it’s the last thing they do at night before going to sleep; 13% use it while on the toilet. I’m totally comfortable with at least three of these stats, and I think we all recognise the numbers are way below the true figure for accessing the internet on the loo. For what it’s worth I’m firmly entrenched in the “good” camp, but recognize that just as there are huge opportunities for us, those opportunities also exist for our adversaries. Below I’d like to highlight what I think is one of the most important opportunities SoMe brings to the profession of arms; getting our people to replace funny cat videos with professional development as their main use of SoMe and how through a focus on this opportunity we also assist in building the counter-narrative to those who wish to use it for nefarious ends.

‘It’s the debate, the debate, the debate…’ was the start of my recent tweet in response to the question “how have the internet and social media impacted leader professional development?” It’s within this discourse between broad networks of curious minds – all seeking to be better within their profession – where diamonds can be found within the rough.  Now don’t get me wrong there is a lot of rough – previous posts in the series have highlighted it as the ‘digital echo’: quick to flow but easily distorted – but our jobs as leaders is not to control, but to curate, the echo for those coming behind us. In doing so, we leverage a mechanism our young leaders are already familiar with, enjoy engaging in, and is a constant in their lives. We’ll be sending them down a path of immersion and engagement in the debates that we must have to ensure we can outwit and outplay our adversaries in an increasingly complex world.

Is this path just letting young leaders go open slather on Twitter, extolling how they can revolutionize the military based on their extensive experience? Of course not. It is about using SoMe as another platform to provide access and resources to build their knowledge and confidence to be able to meaningfully contribute. It’s a step-wise approach that might look something like this

1. LT Bloggs follows a mentor on Twitter – checks out their lists, finds one titled ‘PME’ and follows it.
2. The list is a curated collection of his mentors trusted digital PME network. Immediately, LT Bloggs has access to the thinking minds his mentor goes to for development.
3. LT Bloggs starts reading blogs, listening to podcasts, and digesting Twitter threads, and his aperture into the profession is broadened.
4. His confidence growing, he starts engaging and decides to write a blog post.
5. He sends it to blogs or online writing platforms that have exploded across the international PME network. Their editorial team give the piece some love and publish it.
6. LT Bloggs is chuffed, shows his mates and encourages them to get involved. He writes more as a means for reflection and to continue his self-develop.
7. His appetite for learning is now voracious, so he enrols in post-graduate study. This forces him to write more, but also teaches him research skills. He also has to write a thesis which contributes to the academic body of work on the profession. And on, and on the cycle goes.

This could just be an idealistic story, but it’s not — it’s my story. Replace military professional with physical therapist, and this is exactly the path I went down when I tentatively stepped into the Twittersphere about seven years ago. Of course, once I caught the bug, I have gone down a very similar path with my PME, now enjoying being one of the curators rather than just a recipient. SoMe is the gift that keeps on giving.

So, what? How does this help to overcome the dastardly use of SoMe by our adversaries? Encouraging future leaders down this path gets them engaged, hungry to learn and sharpen their intellect. It also means they are contributing to a counter-narrative against how our adversaries may try to portray us. Articles and discussions will be published that show we are thinking about the profession of arms within the ‘just war’ framework. Our contributions will demonstrate we think more like Liddell Hart than Attila the Hun — we understand the necessity of war but don’t glorify it. Instead seeking to gain understanding of means and ends to achieve the requirements of a rules based global order through whole of government rather than scorched earth approaches. Being intellectually open on social media demonstrates our humanity, and our power. We will solve wicked problems faster than our enemy, be cunning in the way we conduct war, and ethical always. Ours is the side you want to be on.

So, let’s not shy away from SoMe as military leaders. Let’s embrace it and use it to build the force’s cognitive capacity. Let’s encourage our future leaders to move from using SoMe to watch funny cat videos to instead using their time scrolling to invest in developing an intellectual edge. In doing so we, will generate a competitive advantage over current and future adversaries through the quality of our thinking, and dispel myths perpetuated by our adversaries about our societies and the way we conduct war.

About the Author

Nick Alexander is a current serving Combat Health Officer and Associate Editor of the Profession of Arms blog Grounded Curiosity. You can find him on Twitter @Nick_Alexander4