YOGYAKARTA, Suara Muhammadiyah – Suara Muhammadiyah in collaboration with Ministry of Communication and Information of the Republic of Indonesia successfully hold The social media dialogue and literacy forum at Cavinton Hotel Yogyakarta. This event was held as anappreciation of the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information on the creation of Information Jurisprudence book by Majelis Tarjih and Tajdid (MTT) Muhammadiyah Central Board. Previously the similar event was also held at the seminar of preliminary Tanwir Muhammadiyah in Bengkulu last February.
In his speech Suara Muhammadiyah Director Deni Asyari said that through this forum the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information and Suara Muhammadiyah invited all people to address information wisely, especially in social media. “Through this event we invite the community to act wisely in cyberspace and keep the harmony in the real world,” he explained.
A similar message was also conveyed by General Leader of Suara Muhammadiyah Ahmad Syafi’i Ma’arif in his keynote speech at the dialogue and literacy forum. “It is better to be wise in social media and not easily being carried away (with the unverified information),” he advised. Therefore Buya (Ahmad Syafi’i Ma’arif’s nickname) appreciated the theme selected for this seminar. “The theme ‘Bijak di Dunia Maya Rukun di Dunia Nyata’ is very good. But in reality we often fight in cyberspace and split in the real world,” he criticized.
Not only that, Buya also regretted that social media functions, which are supposed to be an adhesion of friendship, are now full of utterances of hate, false news, verbal abuse, and slander. According to him, this was caused by social media users who are not being critical and thoughtful which implicated in the spread of hoax news. “They are no longer see the true and false news. Acceptance of news is only based on likes and dislikes. This is compounded by the political momentum in the country,” Buya regretted.
While according to Vice Chairperson of MTT PP Muhammadiyah Hamim Ilyas, 4.0 era has indeed become the new era and has given the widest door for anyone to access information through technology without limits. In fact, anyone can create information to be disseminated to anyone with unlimited connectivity capital. People no longer see the validity of news. Finally, such a rapid flow of information transforms into a Tsunami that is ready to hit anyone, everywhere. It is not infrequently even becomes a destructive force for a society’s moral and social order.
In other terms, Irfan Amalee, one of the presenters, called it a symptom of ‘infobesitas’ a term fetch from the word information and obesity. “If you eat a lot, its not good because you can be an obese. The same thing also happens in terms of consuming information,” explained Irfan.
Meanwhile, Widodo Muktiyo, communication professor at UNS, is more encouraging to millennials to be the agent of change. A good change is expected to prepare for the next era, the 5.0 era in the future.
Henry Subiakto, an Expert Staff of the Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information talked more about the emergence of hoaxes, their distribution, and the purpose of the hoaks themselves. While hoax are made for the sake of the presidential election, according to him, it certaintly is the work of amateurs.
At the end of the event, all the speakers present signed on the canvas written “Yogya Istimewa Stop Hoaks,”. (gsh/erik/th)