- 23/09/2020
- Category: Commentaries
Misleading and hoax information with provocative and/or racist contents are widely spread across the internet, lining up at our social media’s timeline. One of the most recent, specifically circulating among Indonesian netizens, is a post accusing Pokémon as contradictive to Islamic values—the biggest religion in the country. For instance, ‘Pikachu’—the name of the main Pokémon character—is allegedly having a meaning of “to be a jew”—which sounds just alike, and the word ‘Pokémon’ itself which is claimed to have a meaning of “I am a Jew” in Syriac. The posts are undeniably ridiculous. The 90s generation knows it well that ‘Pokémon’ is an acronym of ‘Pocket Monster’ and ‘Pikachu’ means ‘sparkle mouse noise’. Yet, the post has been instantly spread by many who are easily provoked by the writings— with shares/likes on the post because they think it’s a joke to laugh at.
The post about Pokémon could just be the tip of an iceberg. Thousands of other provocative posts sell well among Indonesian netizens, even better than other real credible news. This indicates that netizens are reluctant to filter information to consume/share. The Daily Dot identifies the cause, in which: (1) people don’t actually read the content they’re sharing; (2) people don’t consider the legitimacy of specific news sources; (3) people are vulnerable to confirmation bias; (4) People infer legitimacy from ‘related content’; (5) People see a piece of content as more legitimate the more they see of it; (6) People confuse satire and hoax.[1] Beside all that, there is another explanation worth to notice: education literacy.
Education: Why It Matters in Indonesia
A study shows that the level of education of Indonesia’s netizens is dominated by high school graduates (64.7%).[2] This is in line with the disparity of education participation rate in Indonesia by 2015; 98% for elementary school graduates, 78% for junior high school, 53% for high school, and only 28% for university graduates.[3] Indonesia’s pre-university graduates are not well equipped with critical analysis ability, since the culture of Indonesian education puts the students as objects instead of subjects—it (only) tells the students on what to learn and understand, instead of encourages them to (also) critically question things. On the contrary, ideal education system should favor debate and discussion as well as promote implementation of academic method in daily issues, such as concern regarding clarification, source credibility, and logical explanation.
This is not to say that university graduates — who are supposed to be more ‘fluent’ with such methods – are wiser netizens, but then, how could we expect a proper netizens behavior when the education of majority of Indonesia’s netizens (high school graduates) does not support the nurturance of such quality?
Even if significant amount of people utilizes internet for recreational purpose, this should never be a reason to not being unwise in managing information provided across the cyber world. If netizens are easily exploited by cheap hoax, it will even be easier for certain parties to manipulate them with ‘sweet lies’. Netizens’ inability to process information in cyber world may cause even bigger misleading information or hoax circulation which may lead to further provocation or irrational prejudice and hatred.
[1] C. Gathman, ‘Why people fall for dumb Internet hoaxes,’ 12 September 2014, , accessed 22 July 2016.
[2] Puskakom UI, Profil Pengguna Internet di Indonesia, 2013.
[3] Kemendikbud, Angka Partisipasi Pendidikan di Indonesia, 2015.
