Salute to Spouses Blog

We're excited to be blogging about the latest topics in military life. We want to keep you informed on topics such as current events, education, career advice, etc. Feel free to post comments or questions to any of our entries.
She Posted What?

I don’t know anyone who owns a map. 

Heck, I’m starting to think I don’t know anyone who owns a GPS that isn’t embedded in their car or their cell phone.

I’m not sure people read travel magazines anymore and I’ve never been in a visitor’s center along a highway chock full of people looking for brochures on what to do, where to eat and how long to drive til the next landmark.

And now, when you move to a new town, you don’t go to community meetings or the city’s welcome center looking for a new church, new take-out Chinese place or new pre-school for your kids. 

You ask on Facebook.

When we moved here just three years ago, I tentatively joined a Facebook group for wives married to sailors stationed at this tiny base and in this tiny town. I never posted, but lots of other people did.

They asked about everything under the sun: commissary hours; rates for drop-in childcare at the base daycare; what military housing was like for officers.

People made friends and got tips on that site all day long.

And here we are, three years later, and that Facebook group is still going strong.  Except it’s been joined by at least eight other groups, all for wives married to sailors stationed at this tiny base and in this tiny town.

In three years alone, the importance of Facebook – and its use as the main way military spouses get their information about, well, everything – has grown.

And so, sometimes, if you frequent those pages, you’ll see something rather odd come across your screen.

Like yesterday, when someone asked what they should do about their husband, who just after he was promoted, revealed to his wife that he was a cross-dresser.

I think I re-read the post 40 times to make sure that I was reading it correctly. And verify that this wasn’t some horrible joke.

But no. There it was plain as day. With her full name and photo attached to it. 

There’s been a big mess as of late that Facebook has overstepped privacy bounds; that they’ve gone too far with an app for cellular devices; that it’s dangerous how much information they put out there about Facebook users.

But what happens when the Facebook users put too much out there themselves?

Especially when it could affect their husbands’ careers? Their own credibility? Their public safety or the safety of those serving around them?

Social media makes it very easy to cross the line between personable and personal.  In fact, it seems we have created a chronic environment of over-sharing.

But for military spouses, it isn’t just a matter of embarrassing yourself.

It’s startling enough that it can set off a chain reaction that could alter personal and operational security.

And yet, the rest of the world is doing it.

But should we?
 

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