Expert: Use of Social Media Must Be Balanced with Media Literacy

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Ministry for Communications and Informations has said that the Indonesians spend most of their time on the internet to surf between social media accounts - especially since social media is no longer just a mean to communicate, but also as a source of a variety of multimedia content.

"Our data indicates that Indonesians tend to browse through and between social media accounts, rather than the wider, world wide web," said the Head of Public Relations for the Ministry of Communications and Informations, Ismail Cawidu during a media literacy discussion at Makassar's Hasanuddin University, in South Sulawesi on Thursday, April 28, 2016.

The forum was held as a part of helping President Joko Widodo's rhetorical goal of sparking a 'Mental Revolution' -  which Ismail believed can no longer be separated from the internet, especially since the internet use - may it be through computers, laptop, smartphones, or tablets -  dominates the daily live of Indonesians, in particular, adolescents and young adults.

"Internet and social media literacy is really important - because the rules that apply in the 'real world' does not necessarily apply in the virtual, cyber sphere," said Ismail. "What seemed to be a harmless discussion could turn into a boomerang - so I do think it's best to avoid discussions about politics and other sensitive topics in the internet - such as ethnicity, religious, and racial issues."

"Furthermore, people need to be more aware that many social media companies have servers that has the capacity to permanently store any trace and evidence of any kind of interaction," said Ismail.

"What we might have deleted on our phones and what not, might still be accessible and stored somewhere that's far removed from where we're geographically located - so we need to be more literate about technology," said Ismail. "Imagine the sort of content that social media companies like Facebook has on their server, seeing that it is still the most actively used social media account in Indonesia - and there are 124 million smartphone users in Indonesia, and that's just Android-based smartphones."

Undoubtedly, continued Ismail, the march of technology has its' benefits. For example, the growth of telecommunication technology has contributed some Rp14 trillion into the economy. "That said, it also has its' downside. Addiction to technology - just like any other addiction - is harmful," said Ismail. "Especially when it the substance in question is always accessible and within reach."

An academic for Universitas Hasanuddin, Muliadi, said that the most dangerous part of the proliferation of social media usage is the fact that effective content filtering has yet to be applied. Despite tough censorship rules, and Anti-Pornography Laws - in the largely unregulated sphere of the internet - quite literally - everything goes.

"The reason why we need to educate our youth about media literacy, is so they reap the benefit of this huge, open source of information, without ever falling victim to negative side of the internet," said Muliadi. "This is where the Ministry of Communications and Informations should play a more active role."

The fact that information is so readily available anywhere, everywhere, creates a state of saturation - up to the point where the audience do not really care what is right and vice versa, as long as it is the quickest update that they could find. "Not only do we need to be more media literate, we also need to stay critical of what we see and hear - as speed without accuracy, amounts to nothing," he finished.

ANTARA