Impact of Social Media on Mental Health and Military Recruiting

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.

During this episode, US Army Major Michael Zequeira discusses his Army Command and General Staff research entitled: the Effects of Social Media on Military Recruiting. More and more Americans receive information from social media. This work looks at the effects of social media’s rise on U.S. Army recruiting. The primary research question was “Is the increased reliance on social media for information negatively affecting the U.S. Army’s ability to recruit?” The secondary research questions were “What role do foreign mis, mal, and disinformation play in decreasing the propensity to serve in the Army of the United States population?” and “How do the negative effects of social media on mental health affect the Army’s ability to meet its’ recruiting goal?” The researcher answered these questions through a hermeneutics approach, analyzing existing research and correlating it to the past 10 years of recruiting trends. The researcher supplemented this by conducting open coding of videos on YouTube to assess the narratives portrayed based on various Army-related keywords. Based on this research, the increase in information speed of social media allows foreign adversaries to perpetuate mis, mal, and disinformation at speeds that decrease trust in the U.S. Government and Army. The well-documented negative effects of excessive social media use on mental health are decreasing the qualified youth available faster than any other discriminating factor. 

Recording Date: 20 Jun 2024

Research Question: Mike Zequeira suggests an interested student examine: 

• For narrative/misinformation academic researchers, does the TikTok algorithm push content harmful to, or counter to, a positive US military outlook?
• For military researchers, how can Social Media feeds be integrated into the targeting cycle to enable real time/near real time targeting?

Resources

• Active Measures: The Secret History of  Disinformation and Political Warfare by Thomas Rid
• LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by Peter Singer
• My Share of the Task: A Memoir by Stanley McCrystal

Link to full show notes and resources

Guest Bio: 

Major Michael (Mike) Zequeira was born and raised in the Fort Lauderdale, FL area. He commissioned through the Officer Candidate School at Fort Moore in 2013 as a branch-detailed Military Intelligence Officer. MAJ Zequeira served as a Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer and Battalion Logistics Officer in 1-68AR, in the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division in Ft. Carson, Colorado. Post graduation from the Military Intelligence Captain’s career course, he served as Brigade Assistant Intelligence Officer at 2nd IBCT, 10th Mountain Infantry Division, 2-14 Infantry Battalion Intelligence Officer, and Military Intelligence Company Commander for the 41st Brigade Engineer Battalion at Fort Drum, New York. He also served as the Headquarters, Headquarters Company Commander, and as an Operational Test Officer at the Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Testing Directorate at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. MAJ Zequeira is currently transitioning to his next assignment in the Division Intelligence section of 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell KY.

MAJ Zequeira’s military education includes the North Georgia University/MCOE Mandarin Language Course, Airborne Course, Military Intelligence Officer Captains Career Course, Digital Intelligence Systems Master Gunners Course, Army Basic Space Cadre I & II, the CENTCOM Foreign Disclosure Officer Course, and the Information Advantage Scholars Program at the Resident Command and General Staff Officer Course at Fort Leavenworth, KS.

His civilian education includes a Bachelor of Arts in Finance and Economics from Anderson University (SC), a Master of Arts in International Security Studies from the University of Arizona, and a Master in Military Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Information Advantage from the Command and General Staff College.

MAJ Zequeira’s awards include the Meritorious Service Medal (3), the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal (2), NATO Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Rotational Forces Lithuanian Medal, Romanian Partner of Defense Medal 3rd Class, Order of the Gold Spur, Order of the Silver Spur, Combat Action Badge and the Parachutists Badge. He is also the winner of the CGSOC Class 24 Excellence in Information Warfare writing award.

He is married to his wife Laura, who has her own career in finance and the couple shares a young son, Matthew, age 2. Mike and Laura are both avid sports fans of baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and both enjoy skiing. Mike also enjoys working out and fishing in his free time.

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

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