Blackberry in Indonesia

In Indonesia, blackberry is extremely popular.  What started as a device for work is now a social tool.  I first noticed every mom in my kids' school fiddling with their blackberry during school performance.   These ladies can't wait to flip out their latest blackberry with the fanciest cover.  Then my 11 year-old insisted in having one 'cos all her friends have one.   The sign that it has infiltrated our society is when my driver wanted to borrow money to buy one.  

Indonesians are very sociable.  We love to chat.  The telecom operators are laughing their way to the bank with the amount of sms that we sent as a nation.  And now blackberry or "bb" as it is called, has become the pinnacle of communication.  First, it is cheaper than sending sms.  It has the added benefit of keeping track of the chat, having conference chat and now the ever popular chat groups.  It is easy to send pics through bb, so easy that my male friend of mine who's married accidentally sent me pics of a scantily dressed woman.  And of cos, it allows access to facebook which is another new addiction of our nation.

I have no issues with people updating their status every split second on FB and displaying their raw emotions to their "friends".  I actually think it is healthy to to express your emotions.  FB status range from "I'm so happy", "I've been dumped" to inspirational quotes, traffic updates, restaurant reviews and practically anything we feel like saying or asking.   It's the misuse of bb that annoy me.  People send spam messages on bb and bb chat groups.  I now have to keep my bb messanger profile silent to keep my sanity.

Bb should be used for sharing useful and important information.  Send your jokes directly to the person who enjoy them (you'll know who they are as they are the ones who respond with"hahaha") instead of blasting to everyone.  And not everyone wants a dose of your inspirational quote daily.  Please arrange your golf game directly with the few persons who are going (use the conference feature) instead of blasting to the 20 people in the group.

Twitter has not really caught on in Indonesia yet.  It is still popular only among the teenagers.  I encourage my friends to please get on Twitter if FB is not ample to ease your crave for networking.    With Twitter, you can then share your thoughts, joke, and anything you feel like sharing.  It is accessible on bb.  And yes, I'll look at your Twitter update when I feel like it.   But please don't clog my bb.

Computer literate mom

My kids’ school has organized a class educating mothers on internet which I applaud.  I think it is extremely useful for mothers to keep up with internet and the various social networking sites; Facebook, Twitter, My Space etc. 

The main reason we need to be adequately computer literate is to keep up with our children’s activities and social circle.  Without understanding how the internet works, we cannot identify the risks and explain them to our kids.  We cannot protect our kids from any potential danger that lurks in cyber space.   We’ve heard recent stories of teenagers being abducted by strangers they meet through Facebook.  Does it mean we stop our kids from accessing Facebook? 

I don’t see how we can stop our kids from accessing the internet given how much it has infiltrated into our society and affect how we behave.  When I ask my kids where they learn about the latest news, response is “the internet”.  When they have homework they don’t have answers ranging from doing a research on Russia to explaining what is a typhoon, they log on the internet. 

What we can do as mother is to explain to our kids the risks and lay certain ground rules while ensuring we have the proper parent control tools in place.  It helps to reiterate the ground rules which should include not chatting to strangers on the cyber world, to keep their social networking profile “private” and not revealing private information to strangers.  It is most important to have the computer in an open area such as the living room. 

Despite the risks that the internet may pose, it is a great communication tool and help us better understand our kids.  Want to know how your kids’ day is, check their Facebook status and Twitter.  Likewise if you want to know what is the common topic among your kids and their friends, Facebook and Twitter offer great insights. 

Let’s all get connected.  Gotta go check my Twitter now…