Digital Drift: When Tech Undermines Leadership

The battlefield has gone digital, but leadership can’t afford to follow blindly. Messaging platforms like Signal and WhatsApp have become standard tools across the force. They offer speed, access and reach like never before, but they’ve also shifted how leaders engage with their teams. Authority now arrives via notification. Pings replace presence. And that easy, always-available access creates a new problem: task saturation with no sense of timing, tempo or personal impact.

Leaders unintentionally erode trust by pushing directives without gauging mental load or operational tempo. When messages arrive detached from body language, tone or face-to-face check-ins, they carry weight without wisdom. Subordinates receive a string of tasks, often well-meaning, but with no room for recalibration. The result is burnout disguised as efficiency. The irony? The more soldiers message, the less soldiers communicate.

Capability vs. Competence

Yes, modern tools make communication faster. Encrypted apps allow soldiers to securely send sensitive materials and instantly share maps, training manuals, photos and concept-of-operation updates. In dispersed or urban operations, their utility is undeniable. But soldiers can mistake capability for competence. That speed and quick access to information have replaced time-tested analog skills, stripping soldiers of the confidence to operate without a signal, literally and figuratively.

Land navigation is the canary in the coal mine. Devices made for harsh conditions in the field, like the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver, gather dust while soldiers use smartphone apps. These apps might be faster and more stylish, but they are fragile and dependent on networks and GPS infrastructure that might not always be available. When assuming the technology will work flawlessly, soldiers cannot learn how to react if it does fail. Each time soldiers trade analog skills for digital convenience, it limits their ability to cope with unexpected challenges.

Signal and WhatsApp have gradually moved from being an emergency to a primary communication medium in some unit primary, alternate, contingency and emergency (PACE) plans. The reasons for this are clear: It gets the job done and it’s secure and easy to use. However, overreliance is a weakness. Communication towers can be taken offline and phones can be faked, monitored or hacked. Those making Signal their main operational support may get cut off during a power outage.

Compounding the problem is the myth that encryption is a cure-all. Just because a message is scrambled doesn’t mean the communication is secure. Metadata, device settings, cloud backups and user habits leave trails. Operational security isn’t just about what is said but also how, when and where it is said. If the Army doesn’t enforce a disciplined communications culture that accounts for adversary exploitation, soldiers aren’t protected. Examples of this can be seen in the Russia-Ukraine war, where soldiers from each side have discussed on social platforms how they program and employ drones, as well as how they defeat them.

Communicating clearly

Soldiers are at risk of forgetting how to lead without tech. We trade precision for pace whenever we default to a device instead of deliberate judgment. And pace without purpose creates friction. Communication isn’t about speed but timing, clarity and trust. Send too much, too fast, and nothing sticks.

This is where leaders earn their paycheck. It’s in the decision to close the laptop and take the long walk. It’s in resisting the urge to broadcast every thought and choosing the right moment to speak. It’s in training teams to navigate, coordinate and lead when the network drops—and not fall apart when it does.

Better Habits

While the tools have evolved, the responsibilities inherent in soldiering haven’t. Embracing communication technology that moves information faster than leaders can move formations is a win, until it isn’t. Signal, WhatsApp and all the rest have earned their place. That place should be deliberate, not the default. The risk comes when convenience outpaces leadership. A message received isn’t always a message heard.

By firing off messages in Signal or WhatsApp, leaders inadvertently train teams to react slowly instead of adapting.

Rapid messaging by leaders leaves no room for feedback. Subordinates acknowledge messages and mindlessly perform tasks, creating blind compliance. We’re not talking hypotheticals here as this plays out in real tasking cycles, real operations and every PACE plan that forgets the “contingency” part. Soldiers don’t require new tools to get back to basics. They need better habits. Leaders must treat communications like a precise, disciplined, mission-driven weapons system. That means slowing down when it counts, sharpening analog skills that hold up under pressure and showing up on the ground, not just on the thread.

When the signal drops and the grid goes silent, it won’t be an app that gets the team through. It’ll be whether the team still knows how to shoot, move, communicate and lead without it.

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First Lt. Mitchell Hoover is an infantry rifle platoon leader with 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.

Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Dominguez is an infantry rifle platoon sergeant with 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. Previously, he served as a brigade plans NCO-in-charge and observer controller/trainer with the 189th Infantry Brigade, First Army. He has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.