JAKARTA - Quoted from Reuters, after more than a year the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, was 'thrown' from the world of social media (medsos). Its existence is "lost" because it is forbidden to appear from the "stage" of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The ban was imposed after he was accused of posting inflammatory messages.
That message led to acts of violence and attacks on the US Capitol by its supporters on January 6, 2021. Now Trump is ready to appear again in the world of social media. Unmitigated, he launched his own application, called Truth Social. There is a rumor that the Truth Social application will be launched on Apple's App Store on Monday, February 21, 2022. Everyone certainly remembers how Donald Trump's tweets were always controversial when he was still active on Social Media.
In his book, the Head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) General Police Budi Gunawan explains the position of social media, especially in Indonesia. The book is entitled Social Media Between Two Poles: Incredible Good Side, Deadly Bad Side. The presence of social media does not only change the way we interact with each other but also brings innovation to the business world. However, on the other hand, many encourage conflict in the community.
We Are Social 2021 data also states that 96 percent of Indonesian cellular phone users are social media users. If broken down, an average of more than 1.3 million new users on social media every day since 2020. This figure is equivalent to 155,000 new users every second.
Social media was originally only used to allow users to connect with other people through the software in a limited virtual community. However, social media is then not only used as a means of virtual communities to interact, but has been used as a channel for work. Social media, whether in the form of blogs, microblogging, social networks, and media sharing services, are then used in a wider variety of functions.
The number of social media users globally continues to increase every year. In January 2021, the figure reached 4.2 billion or grew 13.2 percent compared to the same period the previous year. As many as 99.8 percent of Indonesian social media account owners are active on social media. So, it is not surprising that social media users in Indonesia spend an average of 3 hours 14 minutes every day interacting on social media. The duration is above the world average which is only 2 hours 25 minutes.
One of the impacts of using internet technology in human communication activities is the emergence of various kinds of social media platforms. We Are Social noted that the number of social media users globally continues to increase every year. In January 2021, the figure reached 4.2 billion or grew 13.2 percent compared to the same period the previous year.
Making Profit
The use of social media in a wider variety of functions at the same time benefits platform owners through advertising revenue, on the other hand, benefits users in various roles, jobs and businesses.
Media sharing services, such as YouTube or Soundcloud, Instagram, Flikr, and TikTok, are also growing. This type of social media has a primary focus on sharing media content, such as photos, audio, or video. Many business people use this type of social media to share visually strong content, such as product photos, brand activities, and content such as infographics or videos.
However, the role of social media in the business world in Indonesia is still considered to be growing and promising. This condition is supported by the increasing public interest in using social media.
Encouraging Conflict
The presence of social media also has a negative impact, both at the individual and national level. Starting from the psychological impact to the impact of the conflict that took its toll. Various slanderous seductions, business fraud, fake news, hoaxes, and hate speech that are able to divide the nation fill the content on social media.
In his book, Budi Gunawan gives an example of the phenomenon of the divorce rate in South Bengkulu in 2018 breaking through 447 cases. The trigger for divorce is mostly because of social media. Status and romantic comments, clandestine communication can trigger jealousy, fights, and lead to divorce. A similar trend occurred in Bandung, where during 2018 there were 4,808 divorces and 2,048 of them occurred due to activities on social media.
Twitter is not only used to share information, but has long been used as a channel for gathering mass opinion with hashtags. As a result, propaganda in the form of hoaxes, fake news, hate speech has developed in a number of countries and can threaten state sovereignty.
Broadly speaking, almost all conflicts can occur because of social media, directly or indirectly. Conflict management skills are the basis so that conflicts due to social media can be resolved. In addition, increasing digital literacy must also be followed by high standards of morality from the public. This condition will encourage the public to be smart and wise in their activities on social media.
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