Jakarta, NU Online

On every June 10, National Social Media Day is celebrated in Indonesia. Social media is an important part of changing the landscape of everyday life for Indonesians.

 

The founder of the Public Virtue Institute, Anita Hayatunnufus "Anita" Wahid, the daughter of the late KH Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid explained more on how to use social media in mindfully and wisely, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, online communication is the first choice to communicate with others.

 

She was of view that social media was similar to two coins. It could bring benefits if used wisely and could also bring bad effects such as digital crimes, bad influences, even the simplest but not realized is a possible addiction if it is not used through critical reasoning.

 

"Because of the bad reasoning and thinking, we are most of the time determined by what the key opinion makers in each group, no longer by our reasoning," Anita to NU Online here on Wednesday (9/6).

 

She said, in this era everyone could access social media freely so that hoaxes and hate speeches through polarization are very easy to spread. Given its impact is so bad, everyone should avoid it.

 

Anita reminded several measures to avoid the polarization by being aware of the following. First, by identifying the emotions that first appeared when reading the news.

 

"If those that appear anxious, worried, angry, and hate certain groups, this could be part of a hoax and propaganda. We must avoid it," she said.

 

Second, hurrying to get out of the polarization that hinders the exposure of news from other sources due to the absence of permission from the group. The worst impact is putting aside the importance of so-called tabayun so that people could easily be manipulated for certain agendas.

 

"The result is very detrimental to us. Because we could not see the substance of public policy as a whole," Anita said, adding that other impacts of social media often not realized was that a lot of information is of doubtful validity on WhatsApp family groups, and the weak reading interests or poor literacy of its users.

 

Moreover, the share feature makes information move quickly from one place to another. The easy spread of hoaxes, fake news and misleading information occurs because there is no filtering by the users, especially parents.

 

"So what really needs to be considered is managing emotions so that anxiety does not arise," Anita said.

 

Furthermore, Anita said that the role of the millennials was also very necessary to straighten information if there is doubt about its veracity, so that the information could stop where it is found.

 

"There are two ways to correct it, correcting through private messages and correcting by presenting accurate data," she said.

 

Therefore, it is very important for social media users, especially the WhatsApp ones to be wiser in social media, not just sharing its content but the most important things is first looking for the origin of the content. The validity of the information contained, whether or not it is appropriate to be forwarded, and other important things in order to minimize the level of spreading false information. "

 

Mafindo itself has a Global Fact-Check Database. Its purpose is to check news facts by focusing on the accuracy and sharpness of the news with reliable information sources," the Presidium of Mafindo said.

 

Contributor: Syifa Arrahmah

Editor: Sudarto Murtaufiq