How Facebook Saved the Military Spouse
Back in 2007, during my first deployment, all my Army wife friends were on Myspace. A lot of my friends from back home were there too. Myspace was the place to be. During the deployment, we would spend time together at the park, head home, put the kids to bed and then log in to share photos, comments and update our music list. Remember the Myspace music list? We took quizzes and looked for old friends.
Back then I would log onto Facebook about once a week or so. It really wasn’t as popular even though people were posting there.
These days, Facebook is still pretty popular. We can go on there and learn what our friends are up to, even if we haven’t seen them in years. We can join Facebook groups, share photos of our kids, and get annoyed by all the news and political posts that always seem so frustrating.
Good or bad, Facebook has saved the Military Spouse.
Here is why…
- They can share photos with their families back home.
- They can stay in contact with friends from past duty stations.
- They can learn about local events such as MOPS or what is going on through their local MWR.
- They can talk to local friends and make plans for upcoming nights out.
- They can meet others in their neighborhood, ask for suggestions and sell some of their stuff.
- They can find groups for their interests and make new friends that love the same hobbies they do.
- They can look for jobs.
- They can promote their businesses.
- They can talk about their favorite tv show or book they have read or really anything that interests them.
- They can learn more about a new duty station and even start to make friends before they get there.
- They can find a church or other local group to join.
- They can help other spouses through problems or just be there to tell someone they are thinking of them.
Facebook makes the world a much smaller place.
Facebook is a place to go to connect, to vent, to encourage and to explore. Sometimes I have even felt like my husband lived on Facebook when he was deployed overseas. That was just the way life has been sometimes.
There are downsides to Facebook and social media in general. There can be bullying, there can be drama, and there can be cases of oversharing.
Sometimes I find myself learning much more about a person then I should really know. Politics can divide people, one-upping each other can be annoying and we can spend too much time scrolling our feeds when we should be doing something else.
But overall? Facebook can be the ideal tool for a Military spouse. Social media can help her in ways that nothing else can. Facebook can be her support when her husband is deployed, can be a tool to find a local group that she needed to find to help her make friends, and can lessen homesickness and remind them of fun memories they have made in the past.
Having boundaries with Facebook is also super important. You don’t want to overshare details about what your spouse is doing and always remember OPSEC. You don’t want to spend all your time on social media so that you start to feel depressed about what you don’t have.
You don’t want to overshare too much information so that you could put yourself in danger. Being smart about social media is a must and having boundaries that work for you about Facebook usage is important.
How has Facebook helped you on your Military spouse journey?
