ETHICS IN SOCIAL MEDIA

                                 Ethics in Social Media

Social media is a media involving interactive communication among participants. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp are a few examples of social media. Those media enable participants to post contents they favour. Recipes, job vacant, announcements, short writings on health, religion, and politics are a few examples of contents we frequently upload in our social media account. Readers of those contents freely comments on those contents. Some of them share positive comments with nice words, and sometimes with soothing and calming dictions. Such comments might lead to cheerfulness, happiness, and peacefulness. Others, however, use words having negative connotations, and they frequent use hate speech for expressing their ideas. Such comments might make the relation among social media users heated and unconducive, and it could break the social harmony.

                                    WA, one of the most popular social media

Relying on the implications of the way of commenting in social media, I propose 2 ethics we need to uphold.

• Be sure with the truthfulness of the content. As we receive a certain content, don’t directly pass it, rather read it comprehensively. Verifying it until we are sure that it is neither fake nor hoax is wise. It is worth noting that hoax and fake news are not necessarily bad news, but the news that sounds good could be hoax if it is not factual. I frequently read contents in WhatsApp informing the increase of the civil servant salary. It is good news, it is not a hate speech, but because it is not factual, so it lies. We do not need to pass it. Passing such news means we are passing fake. I am sure you can predict the implication of the circulation of fake news.
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•   Prior to upload a certain content, comment, or status, be sure with the dictions and pictures. Dictions, pictures, and other linguistic forms might influence readers’ mind. The world might look very bright and cheerful because of it is described through words and depicting via images having bright and cheerful connotations. At the same time, the world might seem scary, intimidating, and humiliating because of the word choices and images having the potential to fuel the hostility. Selecting dictions and images carefully prior to post messages in social media is the best policy.

S Social  media is part of our life nowadays. Totally keeping away from it is not impossible, but it might result in problems since communication in all communities is mostly through social media. Using it wisely is the best choice. Happy using your social media, Guys.

 

Tulungagung, September 30, 2022

LINGUISTIC TOUR IN TUNISIA

 

LINGUISTIC TOUR IN TUNISIA

        Linguistic tour is an activity by which the POSFI (Postdoctoral for Islamic Higher Education) participants were actively and/or passively involved in communication. Reading sign directions in streets, noticing price list in supermarkets, having dialogues with sellers in traditional markets, asking directions to public transportation drivers, discussing with lecturers and students at campus were a few examples of linguistic tour.

Relying on the linguistic tour I had, I come to the conclusion that Tunisia is linguistically unique. First, in Tunisia there is dominance dualism between the official language, Arabic, and the second one, French. It is officially stated in the constitution that Arabic is the official language, and French is the second one. The second language, however, empirically is not less dominant or even seems more dominant than the official one. Official documents such as official letters issued by government institutions, announcements at campus, teaching schedules at campus are written in French.  The names of building are commonly written in two languages, indicating that French is equal with the Arabic language. See my picture.

     My background is the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities written in both Arabic and French 

Second, Darija language is the means of communication among Tunisians. Darija is the variant of the standardized Arabic commonly used in Arabic speaking countries. The apparent difference between the two lies in the word formation or morphological aspect. Words in Darija are much influenced by French and other languages existing in Tunisia. Thayyib is an Arabic term which is equivalent to Okay in English referring to a positive comment toward something. In Darija, it gets dakurdoo. The word syukran which means ‘thank you’ in Darija is mershee . The words coinage of dakurdoo and mershee and others is the linguistic creativity of Tunisians who live a multiple linguistic community. This hypothesis, however, needs further and deeper study on the Darija morphology.

My linguistic tour geared me to the conclusion that there is a ‘competition ‘between  Arabic and French. They are competing for the Tunisians’ sympathy. Language is not merely a means of communication. It represents culture, power, and dominance. Those who would like to conquer a certain region have to conquer the language. Through the language, culture and belief can be easily displayed. By way of language, power and dominance can be exercised. Tunisia was once under the colony of France. The influence of the power of France remains alive now. The dominance of French is one of the evidence.  

Note:  What I am writing is my experience in following Postdoctoral for Islamic Higher Education by The Ministry of Religious Affair of the Republic of Indonesia in Tunisia in 2015. This writing is the translated version of the article entitled Wisata Bahasa di Tunisia published on 6 November 2015 in http://diktis.kemenag.go.id/NEW/index.php?berita=detil&jenis=artikel&jd=890#.XeMXtcJ7nug

 

September 23, 2022

 

SMOOTH AND EFFORTLESS

 

SMOOTH and EFFORTLESS

His name is Maher Zain. He is a Muslim singer. His songs are concerned with Islam such as the life of the Prophet Muhammad, prayers to Allah, the struggle for the independence of Muslim countries, and others. His lyrics are simple to understand but heart touching and heart soothing. His lyrics are in various languages, including Bahasa Indonesia. What makes me deeply impressed is that he can pronounce Indonesian lyrics so smoothly and effortlessly that as if he were an Indonesian speaker.

I had been thinking that he was an Indonesian speaker until I watched his podcast several months ago. In a live dialogue in the podcast, he admitted that he speaks three languages: Arabic, English, and one more language (I forget the third language that he mentioned). Indonesian was not mentioned in his short list of languages he speaks. I got astonished!!! How can he pronounce words so smoothly, effortlessly, and naturally without speaking it?

On the basis of this, I come to the conclusion that he has positive attitude to the Indonesian language. Second Language Acquisition studies confirm that one of the factors contributing to the success of second language acquisition is the learner’s attitude toward the target language. The better and the more open the attitude is, the better the result will be. The natural, smooth, and effortless pronunciation are the examples of the almost-perfect performance of Maher Zain in Bahasa Indonesia. Relying on the research results, I am sure that the almost-perfect performance is due to his openness and his appreciation toward the Indonesian language. However, my belief is a hypothesis. It needs research using empirical data. I wish that some day I can reach him out personally and conduct research on his Indonesian pronunciation.

 

September 16, 2022

THUMB UP AND THUMB DOWN

 

THUMB UP and THUMB DOWN

Thumb is one of our five fingers. Out of the five fingers, thumb is the biggest and the smallest among others. Despite its being smallest, it has the best connotation meaning. Thumb up is necessarily associated with appreciation on good works, success, victory, and happiness, and likeness. In short, thumb is associated with positivity. Hearing our classmates’ success, we will feel free to share the image of a thumb up. Being happy because of the good quality of a video in YouTube, we will press the picture of thumb up. The more thumbs up a video gets, the more successful it is because it suggests that the video is highly appreciated. By contrast, thumb down is associated with dis-likeness and negativity. Being unhappy with a certain politician, netizens commonly press the thumb down image.  

However, thumb up is frequently for videos containing bad news such as criminal news, someone’s death, and others. The meaning of thumb up in such a case is questionable. Does it mean that the viewer is happy with the bad news, or does it mean that the viewer is grateful for the news? Which one is the most appropriate one, thumb up or thumb down? I insist on the connotation of each. Thumb up is associated with positivity, and thumb down is associated with negativity and dis-likeness.

Tulungagung, September 9, 2022