STOP.

Hi! These past two days have been a shitstorm. Buka media social semuanya update tentang vonis Ahok, yang pada akhirnya harus divonis 2 tahun penjara. This blasphemy trial had been going on and on for these past two months. Eksploitasi media, long-march, rusuh, you name it all udah mewarnai jalannya trial. So yesterday, it finally came to an end. For those of you who have no idea what this is all about, please read the complete story here (for those of you who don't speak Indonesian) and here for my fellow Indonesian. 

So, yes, these past few days have been a complete shitstorm. Shitstorm in terms apa sih? Jujur, gue bukan warga Jakarta, gak pernah tinggal di Jakarta juga. Tapi shitstorm yang gue maksud disini adalah how the reactions regarding this case exploded after the verdict; semua orang kayanya mendadak paham hukum dan paham kasusnya. Semua orang mendadak peduli sama ini, baik orang Jakarta atau bukan. Ada yang jadi preachers mendadak, ada yang tiba tiba peduli keadilan. Ada yang mendadak nasionalis bilang malu sama negeri sendiri karena kasus ini. 

Gue disini ga akan berasa paling paham hukum, paling ngerti duduk perkara kasusnya. Gue disini cuma jadi orang Bandung, 23 tahun jalan 24 tahun, gak paham paham amat hukum, minim pengalaman, minim pengetahuan, nasionalis level moderat dan cuma mahasiswa S2 yang finansial aja masih offside minta ke orang tua. Note that.

My stake on this is not on the religious side or political side. Udah eneg liat ulasan dari sisi agama, atau dari sisi hukum. Gue nulis ini dari sisi dan kapasitas gue aja, yang gue sebut di atas. Ini post juga ditujukan buat yang ngerasa satu level sama gue, punya kapasitas dan berada di stage hidup yang sama. If this is irrelevant for those of you who are much more experienced, then feel free to just laugh or teach us, or even better close the tab and do not read this at all.

Bro, Sis, coba tanya diri sendiri deh, lo lo pada ini tuh update prihatinlah, malu lah, dan lain lain tetek bengeknya tuh biar apa?

Pertama, buat kategori yang cuma ngikut doang, lo paham beneran kasusnya atau lo cuma pengen keliatan lo update sih? Untungnya apa sih kalau keliatan update? This is beyond ridiculous. Emang ya sosial media hak siapapun, mau update apapun terserah tapi duh, gatel gue. Pertanyaan gue cuma satu, biar apa? Ya who knows yang beneran tau sama yang gak tau dan cuma ikut ikutan ya.

Kedua, buat kategori yang emang paham dan emang ngerti hukum, baik itu yang dukung keputusan atau yang menentang. Lads, buat yang paham nih, mau story instagram atau snapchat lo sampe berjam jam lo ngomong teori juga lo pikir yang punya power bakalan buka insta story lo gitu? Terus bakalan ngaruh? Then again, biar apa? Terus buat yang gak paham tapi cuma baca selewat-selewat doang, lo lebih lebih lagi dah speechless gue. Pernah ngerasain jadi hakim lo? Makanya koar koar bilang ga adil, sistem peradilan cacatlah segala macem. Elah. Udah lulus S1 belom lo?

Ketiga, buat yang mendadak nasionalis, atau yang emang nasionalis beneran, terus bilang malu karena kasusnya udah sampe didenger PBB, lah, kapan lo pernah bangga jadi orang Indonesia? Terus emang lo udah pernah ngapain biar naikin harkat derajat Indonesia? Ada juga yang pengen tiba tiba pindah ke Canada, lo becanda apa serius doesn't matter, mental lo cemen.

Terakhir, yang paling geli, those religious pricks, yang bawa bawa ayat ini itu, hahahah solat udah lima waktu belum bro sis? Jumatan bolos mulu gak? Baca Qur'an gak? 

Gue bukannya nyinyir atau being all salty about this. Gue realistis aja, kalau ada yang bilang "at least gue speak up", balik lagi gue tanya, lo speak up lalu apa? Kapasistas lo emang udah didenger? Lo siapa sih sekarang? Bakal didenger? Kalau ini jaman dulu waktu mahasiswa dianggep dewa sih masih make sense.

Nih ya, gue sadar betul gue cuma remah remah kueh di Indonesia ini. Gue gak pernah being overly proud being Indonesian atau ashamed when these kind of cases happened. Kalau dibaca blog gue ini juga gak banyak gue ngomong politik, pemerintahan atau tentang Indonesia. I was raised in a military family, of course I have a really high sense of nationalism. Tapi gue sadar, kapasitas gue belum mumpuni buat ikut komentar sama apa yang terjadi. Buat lo lo pada yang emang udah punya pengalaman, udah paham betul sama sistem pemerintahan negara ini, I salute you, I hope to be like you all someday, please do something. Buat yang lain, yang level nya masih sama gue atau slightly di atas gue atau di bawah gue, STOP USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO DO EVERYTHING IT IS YOU'RE DOING FOR GOD'S SAKE. Cause its pointless. 

You know what's not pointless? If you do something about it, join a political party, sekolah yang bener, baca yang banyak, or actually write an article and post it on local newspaper instead of writing on you Twitter, Instagram and putting all of these silly hastags.

Focus on what you're doing right now for a better Indonesia. Don't get caught up in the current political dramas, don't criticize too much about what is happening. Look forward instead. Know your potential and what you can do in the future to make it better. I spent my high school surrounded by those idealistic people, those people who somehow shaped me into an idealistic human beings as well. Idealisme itu satu satunya senjata kita, as Soekarno said back on those days. Jangan sekarang lo bacot ngemeng mulu, lalu lo napsu jadi pejabat biar ngasih perubahan tapi begitu lo duduk di kursi kekuasaan karena idealisme lo nol lo korupsi lagi, lo main cewek lagi, lo jalan jalan ke luar negri beli tas dan makeup mahal pake duit negara lagi.

My point is, see beyond the present. See the future and place yourself in the future. What you can do in the future. Gak melulu harus dengan political paths, ya find out what you're good at and focus on that. Gak ada ceritanya "gimana orang pinter mau stick di Indonesia sekarang aja orang yang bener malah di penjara", this is what I call a logic flaw, hon. Kalau semua gini lalu pada akhirnya semua cabut karena takut di penjara, ya sama sama aja. Again, place yourself in the future. Do not lose hope.  

Gak usah malu karena satu kasus, Indonesia is more than its so-called fucked up political systems. Of course this case affected our economy, reputation and shits tapi value negara gak hanya diliat dari sistem pemerintahan ataupun sistem politiknya.

I don't wanna write any further karena semua based on opini gue yang belum pasti validitasnya. Tapi please, stop sekali lagi with the hastags cos there's no use in putting them on your status or updates. Mending lo update yang lain. Atau gak usah update dan drown yourself in books or get tangled up in education.

Don't get offended by this post, please. Gue gatel pengen nulis ginian, daripada gue bikin di insta story atau nulis caption panjang di Instagram dengan foto yang gak relatable atau monolog sendiri di Snapchat mending gue nulis di platform yang lebih proper seperti blog gue. 

Thank you who have read this til the end. I do not mean to offend anyone, please do realise that.

Bandung, 6-5-2017, 19:16

Kembali lagi aku harus merantau pergi, meninggalkan segala yang ada di kandangku ini. Ah, harusnya segalanya terasa terakselerasi, tapi mengkerut rasanya hati ini.

Aku suka Bandung. Cuacanya, yang kata orang sudah tidak sedingin dahulu kala. Tetesan hujannya, yang membuat tenang ingin meringkuk di bawah selimut hangat. Bahkan mungkin macetnya, yang katanya semakin hari semakin menyiksa.

Hanya hitungan jam, setelah tiga tahun yang lalu, aku kembali lagi disini. Tiga tahun yang lalu, situasi yang sama, perasaan yang terpaut jauh berbeda. Ah, rasanya dada ini selalu sesak kalau mengingat bagaimana waktu berlalu sangat cepat. Tambah sulit lagi nafas ini ditarik saat lagi sadar dalam waktu yang berlari secepat kijang, banyak pula yang hal yang silih berganti dan hilang.

Hidup kadang lucu. Ditaruhnya lagi aku di tempat ini.  Mati matian aku berjanji tidak lagi laginya kembali ke tempat itu. Sumpah serapah dalam hati di dua puluh empat jam pertama aku terduduk disitu. Tapi disinilah aku lagi.

Hidup kadang lucu. Dimintanya lagi aku untuk beradaptasi. Saat semuanya sudah berhenti berputar, sudah duduk dengan tenang, kembali dia bangun lalu bisikkan “kembali lagi kamu harus menari”.

Aku takut. Tidak pernah aku semenciut ini.

Mungkin karena kotanya. Terlalu bising. Aku suka tenang. Terlalu padat. Aku suka kosong. Terlalu… palsu? Jelas bukan yang aku mau.

Kadang penat, padahal belum juga aku melangkah. Lihat saja dari kata kata ini, terlalu banyak diksi yang aku rajah.

Akan jadi apa besok? Dan lusa?

Akan bagaimana tidurku besok? Dan lusa?

Akan bagaimana semuanya? Karena aku pun mungkin sudah berubah. Sudah tidak selincah dulu. Sudah terlalu banyak yang dituju.

Andai aku ini lugu. Semua mungkin lurus.

Terlalu banyak huruf U, dan sekarang nafasku memburu.

Oh, ya, kamu. Ingin sekali aku berkeluh kesah padamu. Tapi nampaknya sudah mulai ketara jauh berbeda yang kau pilih di hidupmu dan hidupku. Sepertinya kau suka hiruk pikuk itu. Kebalikanku yang membencinya sampai ke tulang rusukku. Tapi sudahlah, hari ini aku menulis bukan untukmu.

Tuhan, aku sungguh berlebihan. Tuhan, mohon maafkan. Aku tidak mau tidur, tidak mau jam jam terakhir ini kulewatkan dengan mata terpejam. 

Aku tidak mau pergi. 

Generation X, Y and Social Media

In what year were you born? Oh that’s a weird question to start a blog post, innit? I was born in 1993. That puts me in “Generation X” section. Does that sound familiar to you?

You see, researchers have concluded that they can divide people based on the year they were born. Each period is combined with one another and then they are grouped to become one general generation. Since Generation X contains people who were born between the year of 1988-1994, yes, I am a Generation X.

But that’s not the point. I am not going to talk about this. I don’t even know why I made that as an intro. I am bad at intro.

Anyway, as a member of generation X, I wasn’t born with advance technologies let it be internet, laptop, smartphone or those high-tech cameras that people are so into. I wasn’t born with any of that but I’ve been adapting to it. This is different for Generation Y or Millenniums or Echo Boomers or whatever you wanna call it. They were born in the era when everything is so fast, and highly expanded. They were born with all advanced technologies. One click away to reach the other part of the world. One push away to get to one place to another. This era or culture or pattern shapes them into a generation that is also familiar and befriends with what we call social media.

Social Media, isn’t that something? Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, you name it. From words, pictures, videos, even those boomerang thingy where you can record yourself moving around and will automatically be repeated.

I am not gonna lie and definitely not trying to be a hypocrite but I do too, use social media.

The thing is that, I don’t fin social media is a necessity. It is just a form of entertainment. With or without it doesn’t really matter.

It seems like many younger generations find it different. They think the opposite. They perceive social media as an achievement. As a tool and what-so-called “goals”. They use social media to proof themselves and show the world who they are. From perfect selifes, cool stuff, until a ridiculous relationship goals. Bragging, is the result. Although not all of them are doing this. Social media usage is spinning out of control. It creates an equal amount of benefits and noxiousness.

Cyber bullying, lets say. A new term that was born just couple years ago. Seriously though, when you were in elementary school or whatever, cyber-bullying wasn’t a thing, although bullying was already a thing. There are many well-recorded suicide cases as a result from cyber-bullying. It is actually a thing.

The thing is that, sometimes we unconsciously are becoming superficial that we judge people by what they choose to show on the virtual platform. Trust me kids, what you see is not always the truth.

You see, as an older generation, generation X, myself, we can consider things and filter those that we see and listen. We have more control and power also consciousness to apprehend things that we see and experience. Since we had experienced living life without the access that we have now. However, this is not the case with the younger generation, since they were born with this and this thing is a thing that inseparable from them. It is harder for them to have a proper amount of self-control and maturity to seize the social media influence.

I can not imagine in the next few years, when I have my own kids, how can I educate them and give a proper direction for them to have a grasp on social media usage? It would be scary as hell. How can you protect and shelter them where in the same time they have to move forward with the era? Isn’t that complicated?

I’m fucking terrible when it comes to intro and outro.

This is my outro.