Jersei Anyar's Gad, The Indonesian National Team, How Is It Better To Face Criticism On Social Media?

Founder Erspo Muhammad Sadad handed over a new jersey of the Indonesian National Team to PSSI Chairman Erick Thohir during the launch at Space Workshop, SCBD, Jakarta, Monday (18/3/2024). (Betwes/Dhemas Reviyanto/Spt)

JAKARTA The name Ernanda Putra has suddenly gone viral recently. The designer and founder of the Meaning Group is currently being discussed on various social media.

Ernanda Putra's virality cannot be separated from the launch of the latest jersey for the Indonesian National Team some time ago. On Monday (18/3/2024), the Indonesian national team officially launched a new jersey using the local Erspo brand at Bengkel Space, SCBD. This new Jersei has even been used by Pratama Arhan et al in the 2026 World Cup Qualification match, Thursday (21/3/2024), when the Garuda Team won 1-0 over Vietnam.

But unfortunately this jersey has drawn a lot of criticism, one of which is coach Shin Tae-yong who complains of sweat absorption. This was revealed by the Head of the Indonesian National Team, Sumardji.

"So, coach Shin Tae-yong protested, meaning there was a little uncomfortable with regard to the training jersey," Sumardji said, citing Kompas.

"So Erspo has immediately responded, tomorrow it will replace it as desired," he continued.

Apart from Shin Tae-yong, Erspo's jersey also received negative comments from netizens and former futsal coach Justinus Laksana. This is where the figure of Ernanda is increasingly in the spotlight.

He is considered not relieved to accept netizens' criticism about the jersey he designed. Instead of accepting it as input, this man who graduated from Pelita Harapan University actually seemed to be 'challenging' netizens and Justin.

The war of comments between Ernanda and netizens and Justin attracted public attention. According to netizens, Ernanda is too proud to accept criticism. Not only that, he was also considered to have personally attacked Justin on his X account.

"Justin, all I know is Justin Hubner, Timberlake, and Bieber. Who he suddenly became a design game. You can take care of your own life," wrote Ernanda Putra in response to Justin's criticism of the national team jersey.

Criticism is basically normal for humans to do. Whatever the profession, no matter what one chooses, it can't be separated from criticism. This seems forgotten by Ernanda Putra.

Psychologist Tika Bisono said in practice of dealing with criticism, one must be used to facing public communication because public communication is different from individual communication. Furthermore, Tika said, there are three ways that a person usually does to deal with criticism, namely assertive, non-assertive, and aggressive.

When facing criticism aggressively, the output will not be positive, the goal is only to cause a stir. But will the results be productive? Pastiengga," Tika told VOI regarding Ernanda's response to receiving criticism.

In fact, according to Tika, what should be done by people who are faced with repeated criticism is 'disappearing' for a while so that a bad perception of him also disappears. On the same occasion, Tika said how sorry is still a difficult word for some people to say in the midst of the chaos that occurred.

"In us, we apologize first, we are still often considered as the losing party, the low-ranking party," he continued.

Facing criticism on social media is not easy, but that doesn't mean it can't be done wisely.

According to a number of references, what must be done first is that one does not need to feel threatened when criticized because criticism is not actually an attack. Criticism should be seen as a priced feeback that can help a person grow and develop better.

In addition, dealing with criticism calmly and professionally also needs to be done. Responding to emotional or defensive criticism is actually considered only to exacerbate the situation. Finally, criticism should be seen as an opportunity to improve and improve quality.

Meanwhile, Tika Bisono regretted the attitude of PSSI which was considered to have let go of this commotion.

"This should be PSSI's homework too, why was only the designers attacked?" Tika said.

In this case, Tika said that this happens because people tend to be groupy thinking about group thinking. In Groupthink: Definition, Signs, Experts, And How to Avoid It Derek Schaedig analyzes the thinking of groups or group thinking. In psychology, this term has a negative connotation.

The group's thinking resulted in an unwise and wrong decision. This is partly because groups fail to consider alternative perspectives, because they are motivated to reach certain consensus," said Schaedig.