Yogyakarta, 25 October 2019—In last Friday’s Digitalk, the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) encouraged the youth to spread positive contents about Indonesia on social media.
Entitled “Building Gen Z’s Optimism Through Positive Content,” this edition of Digitalk was held in the Mandiri Auditorium of Fisipol. This event was attended by hundreds of participants. The speaker was Akhyari Hananto, an award-winning content producer and the founder of Good News from Indonesia (GNFI).
“As netizens, we can express our love for our nation by spreading positive news from Indonesia through social media,” as stated by Fedryno Geza, the moderator. Akhyari then shared his story of establishing GNFI. He founded GNFI when he was living in the United Kingdom, in which not many of the people there were familiar with Indonesia.
“Even if they know about Indonesia, it is usually associated with negative connotations, such as tsunami or the conflicting nature of the Indonesians. Because of this, I try to improve Indonesia’s reputation, both within the nation and abroad, as it is currently dominated mostly by negative narratives, Akhyari conveyed. According to him, many information out there that the youth encounter daily are dominated by negative and pointless narratives.
The next potential that Akhyari conveyed was the hospitality and friendliness of Indonesians. In 2018, Indonesia was nominated as the world’s most generous country. “There was even a survey that investigated whether the youth are willing to do social work unpaid. Indonesia had the highest number of people that are willing to do so,” Akhyari stated.
However, pessimism can hinder Indonesia’s development. “In 2010, I surveyed 4,000 people in Yogyakarta regarding their views of Indonesia’s future. 83% of the responses were pessimistic. They were pessimistic that Indonesia is able to become a developed state and catch up with the currently existing developed states,” Akhyari conveyed.
Akhyari invited the millennials to create contents that are positive and useful to be shared in social media. He believed that there are lots of untapped potentials that can be harnessed from social media. “We need to change, because this nation needs us,” Akhyari said as a closing statement.