Findings (Blumler & Katz, 1974) showed
that youths always (five to seven days per week) use social media to share
information including personal information. Muhammad Muhsin Ahmad Zahari (2012, as cited in Rosmah Dain, 2012)
claimed that youths in Malaysia use the social media sites to share their
problems and most of them are inclined towards negative things.
Othman (2011) shows that youths are the heaviest user of the
Internet and this is due to the existing social media sites. This is further
supported by Hui (2010) that 83% from all Facebook users in Malaysia are the
youths. Studies in Malaysia show that Malaysian youths primarily share thoughts
and feelings through social media sites. Moreover, youths use social media site
because it also represents freedom (Ali et al., 2010; Latiffah et al., 2009;
Levi & Samsudin, 2010).
Youths consist of 40% of the overall Malaysian population (Economic
Planning Unit, 2010). Thus, it shows that youths are the most significant age
group in Malaysia. Youths are the future of a country. When youths of Malaysia come into contact with this
negatively-oriented information, they might be affected mentally and the
healthy-mind makeup of them might be influenced by the negative information.
Former Prime Minister of Malaysia
Dr. Mahathir Mohamad suggested that “The internet is not the free alternative
to the state-controlled print and electronic media it is touted to be. It is
subject to even more censorship than Governments could exercise. The people who
[host] these platforms and servers can censor. And various other means are
available to the powerful controllers of the new media for them to censor in
the interest of their politics” on August, 2014 through his blog (Advocacy,
2014).
Government of Malaysia has been taking actions against these
online negatively-oriented information (ex.
Rumours, scandals, nude photo cases…), especially on social medias, by censoring
the sites that are flooded with negatively-oriented information or spreading
groups and taking charge of people who spread these. However, this did not seem
to be effective as the social media that are commonly and frequently used to
spread the negatively-oriented information are the sites that taking a great
part of people lives, for example, Facebook and Twitter. Censoring these sites
becomes impossible as it will induce a great rebound from the public. The only
solution the government can resort to is shutting down spreading groups and
catching people who initiated it, but there are always new upcoming groups and
people who turn the government’s solution into useless and just wasting its
effort. The failure is obviously seen and proved in China’s censorship, China
Government has been making effort to delete anything online that
either posed as authoritative government outlets or related to terrorism,
violence and pornography (The Diplomat, 2015). There is a huge rebound among China
citizens and they have successfully sorted out ways to reconnect the sites that
have been censored. It is therefore undeniable that censorship on social media
sites not only unsuccessful but also will result in confliction between
citizens and the government.
Ministry of Education Malaysia can contribute its role in solving
this phenomenon. As the ones that share and the ones that are affected are the
youth, it is obviously that youths are the only and main target in this case.
Educating from the root, prophylaxis before anything happens will be the more
appropriate and effective way. Context about teaching what the suitable and
appropriate things are should be shared to the public, how they should make use
of social media wisely (ex. Sharing academic links) and how they should view
and filter the information available online before they absorb should be added
into the textbook or tutorials in school. Campaigns concerning these should be
held to raise awareness among youths too.
Tit-for-tat, as the negatively-oriented information mainly floods
the social media, so the most effective way to encounter it is to post
information about how negatively-oriented
information will affect our mind and mental growth, and how a make-up of a
future adult will be affected on social media too. Youths may ignore or become
distracted or not pay attention when this information is being given in school
lessons or tutorials or campaigns, but they will probably not give up on social media.
Youths tend to pay more attention to things posted on social media therefore
posting the information on social media will be a better trick to convey the
messages to the youths.
In conclusion, youths are the future make-up
of a country and anything that might affect youths negatively should never be
neglected as they that might cause damage to a country’s future construct.
Authorities should examine the solutions being currently used and come out with
the most effective solutions, there should not be any marking time. “The first step towards getting somewhere is to
decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”--J.P. Morgan.
(810 words)
Reference List:
Ali, S., Mohd, Y. H. A., Mohd, S.
H., & Latiffah, P. (2010). Sustainability of internet usage: A study among
malay youth in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Malaysian Journal of Communication, 26,
62-72.
Blumler, J. G., & Katz, E.
(1974). The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives on
gratifications research. Beverly Hills, C.A.: Sage Pub.
Economic Planning Unit, Prime
Minister Department. (2010). Population by sex, ethnic group and age,
Malaysia, 2010. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: n. a.. Retrieved March 6, 2012,
from http://www.epu.gov.my
Hui, L. Y. (2010). Fastest growing
Asian countries in Facebook. Grey Review: The Social Web Journal.
Retrieved from http://www.greyreview.com/2010/06/02/fastest-growing-asian-countries-on-facebook/
Mong Palatino (2014). Malaysia’s Longest Serving
PM Repeats Call to Censor the Internet Malaysia’s Longest Serving PM Repeats
Call to Censor the Internet . Retrieved from
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/08/05/malaysias-longest-serving-pm-repeats-call-to-censor-the-internet/
Othman, Z. (August 11, 2011). The power of social
networking. Bernama Blis. Retrieved from http://blis2.bernama.com
Shannon Tiezzi (2015). Why China's Defense of
Internet Censorship Falls Flat. Retrieved from
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/why-chinas-defense-of-internet-censorship-falls-flat/
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