By: Moch Irfandi)*
According to Wikipedia Indonesia, social media can be defined as an online media, with users able to easily participate, share and create contents include blogs, social networks, wikis, forums and virtual worlds. Thus, a variety of short message applications such as Whatsapp, Instagram, and Facebook can be classified as social media.
In an advanced era as it today, social media, especially Facebook, Whatsapp, etc., has a very significant role in supporting the life of society, especially exchanging information. Thanks to social media, terror attacks Trucks in Nice, Paris, could soon be known by the public in Indonesia. The “power” of social media makes this world just as wide as a leaf. However, social media is like a double edged sword. There are several negative impacts caused by the rapid penetration of social media in various aspects of community life. One example, social media is often misused as a means to escalate the conflict both vertically and horizontally.
Many people agree that social media can indeed be misused to escalate the conflict. One of them is Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla. In front of hundreds of police officers some time ago, Mr. Kalla firmly stated that the number of conflict and what happened today is inseparable from the role of social media. If in every conflict in past time there is always a leader, it is so different to compare it with what happen today. According to Mr. Kalla, the current conflict and rebels right now are led by a global social media applications such as Facebook and Whatsapp.
Until now, many examples of conflict that being escalate due to the role that social media is misused. For example, the tragedy of a number of monastery that eing burned by civilians in Tanjungbalai, North Sumatra some time ago. Events that initially only caused by a trivial misunderstanding developed into violent conflict thanks to unreliable chain messages that being redistributed through social media and it provokes the public. There are many other examples that could illustrate how easy it is to escalate the conflict as a result of social media is misused. In abroad too there are many examples of similar cases. For example, the events of the Arab Revolt in Egypt and Libya. In essence, the role of social media to escalate the conflict is something that can not be denied.
So, what should be our wisest response to this phenomenon? We certainly can not deny that social media has become an indispensable part of our lives. Social media with all its positive and negative impacts have entered all the joints of our lives. The ease of social media in escalating the conflict has also become one of the proof that our relationship with social media has been very “deep”. In other words, it is difficult for us to say “no” to social media. The only way to minimize the negative impact of social media in escalating the conflict lies in us, the users of social media itself.
We should always be wise in using social media. We should not be easily influenced by the issues that being spread across social media. Remember, all content in the social media can be “created” and “misinterpreted” at will by anyone. Therefore, we need to implement the “check, recheck, and cross check” methode when we got an issue, especially the issue about violent and provocation. We also should not “confirmed” even “shared” any kind of issues that remain unclear. The point is, if we suppose that the majority of social media users can be wise, surely the role of social media as one of the factors to escalate conflicts can be minimized.
)* The author is CIDISS contributor
