Along with the advancement of digital information technology, the implementation of education in Indonesia is inevitably biased by the presence of information media in the community. This is because the media also plays a vital role in determining people’s minds; by controlling the flow of information circulating, people are also affected by the media.
This trend makes the media and mass media owners have control over information and people’s thoughts. But, unfortunately, few of the public are aware of the media’s control over the mind.
Postman (2005) once alluded to the same thing: “What is peculiar about such interposition of media is that their role in directing what will see or know is so rarely noticed”. The media direct us to the information they want, and, unfortunately, the public rarely realizes this.
This control is harmful to educational activities. Because, with their superiority, the media and their owners can control what people think. So, are people not enlightened by the press? The answer can be both yes and no. The existence of media is the same as other technologies, such as a coin with two sides. Media brings good influence also brings threats. The influence of the media also grows as the media evolves.
The evolution of the media is very influential on the information distribution system. For example, the existence of print media in the past brought significant changes in terms of news and education. As a result of the presence of the print media, the writing culture developed quite rapidly. However, as the writing culture grew, the oral culture slowly faded away.
From this, it can be seen that there is a shift from the old culture to the new ones. For example, in an oral culture, people usually convey information by word of mouth, and in print culture, it was replaced by written media such as magazines and newspapers.
The shift in oral culture has an impact on the concept of thinking of the oral community. Initially, in oral culture, education tends to require students to remember the lessons given, then the activity of remembering is shifted by books. There are positive points where the distribution of information can reach different places, and the content or arguments are more diverse. Still, the human ability to remember is reduced gradually due to writing as a “forgetting medicine.” Once the trend of writing culture completely shifted the oral culture, reading activity increased rapidly, and many people were literate. They have more knowledge than people of oral culture.
Things like this are repeated because of the evolution of digital media. Today, people spend more time on social media than reading books. There is a cultural shift every time the media evolves. The reading culture brought by writing was replaced by the techno culture brought by digital media.
As already discussed, the reach of information on social media can reach broader and faster than books. Hence, Every time the media evolves, the distribution of information is also getting more expansive and faster.
Then, how is the quality of the extensive and fast information? Has the evolution of digital media brought more quality information than ever before? Unfortunately, the quality of information presented by digital media is too random to be judged because the information on digital media is too much, complex, and unstructured.
Big Data and Big Confusion
Information that is very much, complicated and unstructured that is difficult to handle is called big data. In addition, the information presented by digital media is too random to be assessed for quality and can create confusion for users in absorbing the available information.
Even worse when the user is an unstable teenager whose psychological condition is less stable. This teenager seems to be floating aimlessly on the Internet due to big data like this. If this urgency does not attract attention, it will be hazardous in terms of the absorption of information by teenagers on the Internet. This absorption process affects the quality of information for human cognitive needs, especially adolescents. If the process is to absorb low-quality information, then the thinking generated based on that information is also simple.
Based on this concern, a question arises, if in the era of writing, media succeeded in enlightening many people with reading, then how did digital media literate people with big data?
As mentioned earlier, the absorption of information affects the cognitive quality it produces; digital media users must sort out the required information. The individual himself can only handle things like this because everyone has a different mind, so that the necessary information must be unique.
Then it becomes necessary for teenagers to manage existing information to get exposure to the correct information. But for teenagers, digital media is almost like the second reality of their existence. Most teenagers spend their time in virtual public spaces provided by social media platforms such as Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, etc. Thus, the information distributed is too much for one teenager to manage.
This situation will confuse and can lead them to ‘information overload’. However, if teenagers spend their time on social media, when is their time to think and sort out the information they receive? Therefore, a strategy is needed for adolescents to develop thinking skills with increasingly sophisticated media technology to bring out the potential of technology for the benefit of humans, especially their thinking skills in solving problems.
Critical Thinking
One strategy that can use to conquer big data is the concept of critical thinking. By thinking critically, a person will always be suspicious of what appears in front of him. Moreover, someone who thinks critically will process the information once because the concept of thinking is looking at things in the visible aspect and what is hidden and the inconsistencies (premises, arguments, metaphors, etc.).
Digital media presents information visually so that sometimes it takes foresight to what is seen. The presentation tends to take a glittery shape to make it look attractive. This glittering process will provide a veil for inconsistent elements. In addition, this glitter can create a person addicted to one type of information.
This process is also used for the commercialization of popular culture. For example, a social media user who often accesses information about things that smells K-pop will be flooded with information relevant to K-pop and addiction is the result. Filter bubble and glittering information is one effective formula to produce something addictive. The concept of critical thinking will help someone avoid being addicted to something. So that the information absorbed can be helpful in the future for adolescent self-development.
Applied Linguistics
In addition to the concept of critical thinking, applied linguistics such as semantics or semiotics also need to be studied. Because to reveal something inconsistent in the text, tools like these two sciences are required. In this case, teenagers or students who are used to studying Arabic literature will find it easier to practice it.
The practice of Arabic literature such as nahu science has an analytical nature. Therefore, the reader must understand each partition position in the text to get the meaning. The same thing (not necessarily the same) is also used in semantics or semiotics. Concepts like this are beneficial when you’re on social media to reveal what information is actually contained in a post.
With these two strategies, the author hopes santri can be wiser with the current existence of digital media. So what was imagined by Orwell or Huxley did not happen.