Indonesia’s Social Media This Week – Vol.03

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Indonesia’s Social Media This Week – Vol.03

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By daud Other posts by daud

Raconteur’s social media highlights this week:

1.The Tragedy of Tugu Tani Collision by Atri & Daniel.

The online community reacted with equal measures of empathy and anger over the incident last Sunday in which a car driven by a woman stoned out of her brains ploughed into pedestrians near Tugu Tani in Jakarta, killing nine people including children and a pregnant woman. Onliners reacted with grief and condolences towards the victims but these sentiments quickly turned into hatred and anger addressed to Afriyani Susanti, the woman driver. Pictures and video grabs of the collision spread via Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Kaskus forums and broadcast messages. Much of the rage was directed at a Twitter ID purportedly owned by Afriyani. The account turned to be bogus but that did not stop dozens of Twitterers from venting their spleen by targeting that account.

The conversations over this tragedy have also given rise to some issues on the use of social networking platforms. Among them are:

The viral spread of the collision video/pictures. Some people felt it was morally wrong to actively participate in spreading the video/pictures, and they pointed out their disappointment of how the traditional media was involved in this practice
The necessity of ‘social punishment’ towards the suspect. ‘Bullying’ term is understated, as people were expressing their anger to the suspect by spreading Afriyani’s Twitter ID, along with several names/ID that involved at the collision scene.
The Twitter identity fraud/multiplicity. Identity fraud is a familiar case, especially in this kind of circumstances. Twitter account @sinengaprilia, later known to be fake, has already been deleted, but there are still other (fake) Twitter accounts carrying her name in the Twitterville.
Unnecessary black campaign to Xenia brand. Several media have put ‘Xenia maut’ into their headline, without considering that the collision has no relevancy to the vehicle involved. On the other hand, it might actually pointed out Xenia’s strength features; if we overlooked the fact that everyone in the suspect’s car is—ironically, safe.

Still related to the incident that piqued onliners attention on the safety of pedestrian, a video that was published in 2009 is now being shared widely through various social media channels. The video portrays a woman who shoved off a motorcycle driver who rode his motorcycle on the sidewalk. People appraised the woman’s bravery, saying that it’s a good example to improve discipline on the street.

2.Kowawa by Nadia.

The Indonesian Twitterville is now enlivened with a super-cute word: “KOWAWA \(´▽`)/” (with the emoticon \(´▽`)/ being mandatory). The word, which was coined by @riniiiii @babikbinal and @peggybunny has taken a life of its own in Twitterville as buzzers (Twitter users with large followings), started using it, even though they might not necessarily know what it meant.

So what does KOWAWA actually mean? @BabikBinal, through a tweet, explained that ”KOWAWA! \(´▽`)/ is a multi-purpose nonsense word that can be used to mean anything you want it to. “Let KOWAWA! \(´▽`)/ into your heart. Spread the Love.♥”,” she tweeted. Those who have been KOWAWA!\(´▽`)/-ed can join in the delirium at http://kowawa.tumblr.com.

3.The Urban Legend of Nenek Gayung by Hanny.

There has been more than 1,400 tweets circulating since yesterday about “Nenek (Grandma) Gayung (Water-dipper)”. Who is this popular grandma?

Last night was Thursday night that is considered to be “scary night” for some Indonesians; thus there were a lot of conversations on Twitter about ghosts and supernatural happenings been (they usually fall under the hashtag #memetwit), including the rumors about the sightings of “Nenek Gayung”. This ghost, so the story goes, has been seen by several Jakartans. The ghost takes the form of a grandmother holding a water-dipper and straw mat. It is said that the grandma will try to chat with you, and if you launch into a conversation with her, you’ll soon be dead. The water-dipper and straw mat she’s bringing represents “death” in Indonesia since corpses are given a ritual bath on a straw mat before burial.

The story about “Nenek Gayung” is also being shared by @Poconggg (a popular Twitter account named after a well-known type of Indonesian ghost and is administered by Arief Muhammad) with more than 1.8 million followers. But skepticism abounds, not so much by the existence of Nenek Gayung, but whether all this chatter is the result of a publicity effort for some horror-movies that might be played in Indonesian cinemas.

4.iPhone 4s Launch Campaign (#ItsAPerfectMatch) Euphoria by Jonathan.

@vincentrompies queuing for iPhone 4S

Starting today, two of Indonesia’s telco giant officially launched iPhone 4s as part of their bundling products. The topic started it’s debut in Indonesia around 7:30 this morning on Twitter and continued to climb up the ladder into Twitter trending topic in Jakarta.

One or two day(s) before, we had actually seen the hashtag #ItsAPerfectMatch being buzzed by popular Twitter users. Today, it is obvious that Telkomsel is actually the brand behind the hashtag. Around noon today, the topic had changed from simply “iPhone 4s” to “Unit iPhone 4S Ludes” (or iPhone 4s units are sold out).

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That’s it for this week! We’ll see you again next Friday with our social media highlights and.. have a nice weekend!