MySpace and the Army
The banning of access to MySpace may have long term repercussions for Army recruiting. Working class teenagers, the type most likely to enlist in the military, use MySpace. As many have noted, Facebook (which tends to attract college students) was not blocked.
MySpace may be bandwidth-intensive and insecure, but rather than just block access, the military should seek low-bandwidth, secure ways to allow soldiers to accomplish the same thing. AKO is not the answer, because teens do not develop their online social networks on AKO. The social networks are currently Balkanized, therefore we must leverage the social networks the soldiers have spent years developing. Very often, the *entire high school population* of a soldier is in their “friends” grouping, following their adventures in the Army.
The most obvious answer is to partner with MySpace to develop a more secure, low-bandwidth area of their network.
The military budgets resources (in money, personnel, and logistics) to provide physical mail to our members. A small investment in resources will allow today’s soldiers to communicate with their hometowns, further connecting our military with the American public and improving recruiting opportunities.