Social Media Literacy For Students Needs To Be Improved

Parents and teachers must continue to supervise the use of social media by children. (Between/Irsan Mulyadi)

JAKARTA The use of social media among students has led to negative things. WhatsApp, Instagram, twitter, Facebook which could have become a forum for positive communication, actually became a place for mutual blasphemy, provoking, and spreading anarchist actions.

Two students in Ciampea, Bogor Regency in 2019 dueled likemen, due to mutual blasphemy on Facebook. One suffered stab wounds to the head and the other received stab wounds to the left hand.

Then in Cirebon in January, a group of teenagers challenged each other on social media which led to a brawl. One person died as a result of a sickle slash.

The latest case of a teenage stabbing in Cibeureum, Sukabumi was by three 14-year-old students on March 22, 2023. The victim died only because of mutual blasphemy on Instagram. What is even sad is that the murder was deliberately broadcast liveinstagram by one of the perpetrators.

Secretary General of the Federation of Indonesian Teachers' Unions (FSGI) Heru Purnomo assesses that the development of digital technology media has brought many changes to society. Everything is becoming practical today.

To communicate, someone no longer needs to meet face to face, just send a massage or call. Likewise, looking for information, no longer need to go to the library, just crowding and swimming answers may be obtained.

However, this condition also turned out to have a bad impact if it was not accompanied by intelligence in using it.

"Whatever the media, in communicating, it still requires ethics, literacy, understanding, and so on, it's complex," Heru told VOI on April 3, 2023.

Without ethics and literacy, social media will be a dangerous forum.

For example, the issue of provocation, immediately responded to, or for example, issues that have not been proven to be true continue to be shared directly. Meanwhile, those who read it are not mentally ready to understand and respond to the information circulating on social media. The impact will certainly be more worrying, especially at a young age, the potential for brawls or other anarchic acts can be greater," continued Heru.

That is why, Deden Fardiah, former chairman of the West Java Regional Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPID) said media literacy is the key to making social media a positive forum for communication.

The goal is to prevent the impact of the media on the public, to prepare the audience so that they can become critical media consumers, and so that the public can empower themselves when dealing with the media.

"If people used to look for information, now people can say that information is always being pursued, regardless of whether the information is true or false. From this fact, of course, the demand to be able to sort out and choose information is increasingly important," said Deden in the West JavaBappeda house training on March 31, 2023.

The results of Indonesia's Digital Literacy Index in 2021 by the Ministry of Communication and Information in collaboration with the Katadata Insight Center (KIC) are still relatively low, only 3.49 of the 1-5 scale. Allegedly, this is because there are still many people who do not realize the dangers of uploading their personal data to the public.

The ability of media literacy must be taught from an early age. Heru assessed that it was time to enter the school curriculum. At least it has been taught since when children can write and read the contents of social media content or around grade 4 elementary school.

"Children at this stage in today's era can generally create content and be active on social media. But it's only about pride or exciting events, they don't know the impact of their posts yet. This ability will increase to junior high, high school, and when a person's university is more mature in social media," said Heru.

Already able to operate social media wisely, can understand the contents to avoid provocations, and can filter out all available information.

Social media activist Enda Nasution also agrees. The negative influence of social media can only be overcome with literacy skills. Children must be taught various things that are permissible and should not be uploaded on social media.

Because the impact is not only on people who are in the video, those who upload can also be subject to the law if their posts violate the rules, such as those related to violence, sara, and pornography.

"It's time for digital literacy to enter the education curriculum as needed," Enda told VOI on April 3, 2023.

No less important is the role of parents and teachers to continue to supervise and continue to instill moral and religious values so that children understand better and are inappropriate.

Also, the role of the environment that continues to campaign for wise social media slogans. Social media is not a place to blaspheme or insult.

"It must be done immediately. In the future, cyber challenges will be more massive. The potential for an ideology to emerge that is contrary to the characteristics of the nation will be even greater. Not only threatens children's personal lives, but also the sustainability of the Indonesian state," he added.

UNESCO has a very low interest in reading the Indonesian people, only 0.001 percent. This means that out of 1,000 Indonesians, only 1 person is diligent in reading.

Research results entitled 'World's Most Literate Nations Ranked' conducted by Central Connecticut State University in March 2016 also display data that is not much different. Indonesia only ranks 60th out of 61 countries regarding reading interest.

Meanwhile, the number of active smartphone users in Indonesia in 2018 alone, has reached more than 100 million people according to the Digital Marketing Emarketer research institute. The majority use gadgets for more than 9 hours every day. No wonder, social media activists in Indonesia are known to be literate but have minimal literacy.