The Importance of Netiquette as a Guide to Interaction in the Digital Space

The Head of the Digital Literacy Team for the Education Sector of the Ministry of Communication and Information, Bambang Tri Santoso (second from right) during the Digital Literacy Seminar for the Vocational Education Sector in Bengkulu Province (5/10/2022), quoted from aptika.kominfo.go.id. Netiquette or internet etiquette is an important guide in interacting in the digital space. This is in line with one of the pillars of digital literacy, namely digital ethics or digital ethics.

Netiquette is a set of ethics in using the Internet. In most internet community groups, rules are needed that will be used as user references, these rules concern the limits and the best way to use the Internet facilities.

"So we must always be aware that we interact with real humans on other networks, not just with rows of letters on the monitor screen, but with real humans," said SMKN 4 Bengkulu teacher, Yulina Wetsy at the Education Sector Digital Literacy Seminar with Pandu Digital. for the SMK level in Bengkulu Province, Wednesday (05/10/2022).

Yulina added, in the digital world, humans interact and communicate with various cultural differences. With the ease of internet access, it is possible for everyone to connect and participate, regardless of cultural or geographical boundaries. So netiquette needs to be applied by all internet users.

Meanwhile, the Principal of SMKN 4 Bengkulu, Paidi, who also opened the event, gave his appreciation to the Ministry of Communication and Informatics for holding a Digital Literacy Seminar for students. “Optimization of internet usage for students still needs to be improved. One of them is through digital literacy," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Digital Literacy Team for the Education Sector of the Ministry of Communication and Information, Bambang Tri Santoso conveyed the importance of digital ethics in communicating on social media.

“Finally, digital ethics also needs to be understood as the ethics of communicating on social media, regarding the ITE Law and about what is allowed and prohibited in cyberspace. All of you need to pay attention to this," he explained.

Take advantage of Ease of Information for Optimizing Learning. The seminar also presented several speakers, one of which was the Head of the Bengkulu Province Education and Culture Office, Eri Yulian Hidayat. On this occasion, Eri conveyed about digital literacy in the educational environment.

“Use the information well, especially with the concept of independent learning, which means students can study anywhere and anytime. Currently (the digitalization era) learning content is very easy to obtain,” he said.

Eri also added that this rapid flow of information can have both positive and negative impacts. Students need to analyze the various information received.

In this activity, as many as 500 vocational students in Bengkulu Province received briefing related to digital literacy. The activity was carried out at the Center of Excellence (CoE) of SMKN 4 Bengkulu City.

The seminar is part of a series of Indonesia Makin Cakap Digital programs initiated by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, with a target of 50 million Indonesians being digitally literate by 2024.