By: Norman Triangga)*
Social life in the digital era marked by waving social media, is a challenge that must be faced together. As the effects of globalization, social media is inevitable for the people of Indonesia. It is undeniable, impact of globalization is felt significant to bring positive changes, such as advances in technology that supports the daily mobility, ease of access in obtaining a variety of information on the Internet or other media, and ease of communication. However, there are negative changes were also felt, for example, increasingly waning identity and national identity, the development of the attitude of individualism, hedonism and consumerism, as well as environmental damage. These are the things that affect various aspects of community life, not least related to religious life, especially the people of Indonesia consists of diverse ethnicity, religion, and race.
Sadly it turns social media is often used by certain parties to exacerbate the problem. Dissemination of information is less accurate and provocative certainly are a bad influence. Supposedly the information disseminated is information to build peace and harmony. Unfortunately, the receiver or reader information often does not filter the information from social media. As a result, the longer the problems, grudges rooted in the heart and it is difficult to solve the problems down to the roots.
For example riots in Tanjung Balai which resulted in the destruction of temple which is none other than incitement through Social Media. Like no smoke when there is no fire so there will not be a riot if no culprit permasalahaannya. There is already legislation to regulate the use of social media in order towards the positive, but will not be in line if the mindset of the people are not in change for the sake of the Importance of Caring for Religious Harmony in the Age of Social Media.
A powerful way to keep the social media era of tolerance is not spreading content that was released media ‘Abal Abal’. How to distinguish this kind of media? First understand the news. Is very keen to discredit the group and pitched tendentious and aggressive? It could be that the media allegedly fall into the category Abal Abal. Another characteristic is how the choice of words in the headline malignant feeling and agitate (Incite) and aroused the anger in the reader.
Social media like a double-edged sword, on the one hand is able to be a blessing in a tolerance, diversity but on the other hand be a disaster for its users. The key is to users. Users who have high ethical integrity, able to think deeply before making any opinions, answers, upload, and keep everything that is SARA.
Let maturing in socially mediated not deify social media. How much harm our nation if we attacked each other, destroy the peace and harmony that has existed with destructive postings on social media. It is time we look ahead, to keep pace with the nation.
)* The author is CIDISS contributor