Digital Civility of Our Society

At the end of February 2021, Microsoft issued Digital Civility Index that looks into the level of civility of a country in cyberspace.

Of the 32 countries surveyed, Indonesia ranks 29th or only better than Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Indonesia\'s Digital Civility Index (DCI) score this year is 76 or eight points worse than 2019.

This civility index is seen from several things, such as 1) whether someone will think or ponder first before replying to people who have different opinion, 2) respect the views of others, 3) treat others with respect and dignity, 4) defend people who are treated unkindly and unhealthily in the online sphere.

Other aspects that are also measured in this index are the number of hoaxes, scams, fraud, disinformation, fake news, bullying, harassment, discrimination and the like. Microsoft began conducting a survey on digital civility in 2016 and the newly released results represent its fifth survey.

Also read: An Exemplary in Digital Environment

Indonesia\'s poor results in the civility index will add to the sadness when it is juxtaposed with several other indexes. In the book The Shifting of Religious Understanding: From Absolute Truth to Community Owned Cultural Richness (2021), Denny JA presents three recently released indexes, namely the Happiness Index, the Corruption Index and the Development Index.

In the Development Index, Indonesia ranks 107th out of 189 countries.

Where is Indonesia? We are ranked 84th out of 153 countries surveyed in the Happiness Index. In terms of corruption, Indonesia is ranked 85th out of 179 countries measured. In the Development Index, Indonesia ranks 107th out of 189 countries. It is not as bad as the Civility Index, but it is very clear that Indonesia is not in a good position.

People could argue against that question by saying, "There is already Pancasila and moral education and the results are like that. What will we get if there is no education?" Yet, different conclusions can be drawn, that the education of morals, religion and also Pancasila that has been taught has not been very successful in building our civility in the digital sphere.

Social ethics

In the book The Death of Expertise (2017), Tom Nichols mentions the negative effects of the digital world. "The internet makes us more violent, temperamental and unable to build a discussion climate in which everyone learns from each other. The main problem with instant communication is its instantaneous nature .... Sometimes people need to pause and ponder, giving themselves the opportunity to absorb the information and digest it.”

In the world of social media, people will easily react without thinking, sharing without filtering. The motion of the fingers is sometimes faster than the motion of the mind. The case of "Islam is arrogant" is an example. Once the tweet went viral and received a lot of criticism, only then did the writer apologize and say that it was an instant response to the tweet from his opponent.

As the author himself noted in his affidavit video, the tweet came out without any prior thinking.

In the digital world, a silly person can sometimes feel smarter and more influential than someone with knowledge. Some people who have never studied religion before, for example, suddenly become celebrities and referrals in religious authorities by successfully promoting themselves through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube.

Also read: Digital Literacy to Counter Hoaxes

I often take examples from what was experienced by Muslim intellectual and author Buya Syafii Maarif, Quraish Shihab and Ahmad Mustofa Bisri who were bullied by people who may not yet know how to read Al-Fatihah or are not fluent.

Because of his writing entitled "The Issue of PKI [outlawed Indonesian Communist Party] Awakening to Become an Annual Ritual" (26/9/2017), Buya Syafii Maarif was bullied on social media with words such as "crazy old man", "getting older the more perverted", "senile and liberal" , "The crust of hell," "the older the more they lose their minds," "a PKI agent disguised himself as a cleric," "intellectual but stupid ", "speak loudly, but have deaf ears, blind eyes," and the like.

Here, there is an apparent lack of ethics towards elder people, knowledgeable people and community leaders as well as a loss of will to do tabayun (reflection and confirmation).

DIGITAL CIVILITY INDEX (DCI) 2020.

Microsoft\'s research report titled the Digital Civility Index (DCI) in Indonesia in 2020.

Indeed, the strength of the internet is its ability to provide extraordinary opportunities for access to knowledge. However, paradoxically, in the midst of this convenience, people do not want to be learners and even reject science. "People not only believe in stupid things, but they even

actively refuse to learn and break away from those stupid beliefs" (Nichols, 2017).

The loss of morals, honesty, a lot of fake news, hoaxes, scams and the like on social media are what makes many people worry about the existence of the digital world. This is what prompted the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to issue a fatwa regarding "Law and Guidelines for Muammalah [Human Relations] through Social Media" in 2017.

Likewise, Muhammadiyah issued a digital media guidebook entitled "Akhlaqul Medsosiyah [Moral Guideline on Social Media] Warga Muhammadiyah" in 2018.

Even though there are many guidelines or fatwas related to the ethics of using social media, they are still unable to withstand the fall of our civility on cyberspace.

Because of this, internet users still need to sort through the trash in order to find 10 percent of the “diamond”.

In fact, some who issue guidelines or fatwas may even be trapped into taking part in digital savagery. Perhaps, as a guide to surfing in the digital world, we should consider Sturgeon\'s law, named after the legendary science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon. According to this law, it can be said that 90 percent of information through the digital world is trash (Nichols, 2017). Because of this, internet users still need to sort through the trash in order to find 10 percent of the “diamond”.

National Education Road Map

Returning to the original question regarding the role of religion in the digital world, is there or isn’t there influence from religion on digital civilization in Indonesia? Religion has a very important place in society and government. All aspects, including national education, will include religion as the main element.

When the word "religion" did not appear in the draft Education Roadmap (PJP) 2020-2035, some of us protested. However, as seen in the corruption and DCI indexes, why does religion appear to have no influence?

Perhaps, just like Denny JA has said regarding corruption, "public morale in government is not determined by how many persons believe in religion, but corruption is rather determined by modern management". The same is the case with the issue of digital civility.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

A pedestrian looks at antihoax campaign murals under the Rawa Buntu overpass in Serpong, South Tangerang, on Monday (11/3/2019).

What is even more worrying is why, in some cases, religious education in schools has given birth to radicalism, exclusivism, intolerance and the like? Here it needs to be taken seriously when religion is to be included as an important element in PJP. What kind of religious values are you trying to teach?

This must be taken into account so that the inclusion of religious elements in education does not actually instill or foster social segregation, intolerance, discrimination and radicalism. What needs to be instilled are religious values that teach the spirit of nationalism, patriotism, unity, social justice, humanity and love for others. It also includes how we can have a good digital civility.

KOMPAS/YUNIADHI AGUNG

Ahmad Najib Burhani

Ahmad Najib Burhani, Research Professor at LIPI

(This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswoko).