UNS — Only on their second semester, Hilmi Asyam Nur, a student of English Language and Literature Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Studies (FIB), Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, has carved a new achievement. The student of the class of 2020 won as the third champion in the UNS International Essay Competition 2021 announced on Monday (24/5/2021). Taking on a theme entitled ‘Living in A Good and Global Civilization,’ this competition is hosted by the FIB UNS on 11 March—15 April 2021 to celebrate the 45th UNS Anniversary.
Hilmi wrote an essay entitled “Social Media Algorithms in a Global Civilization: Can We Control It.” The essay discusses the issue of Social Media algorithms to attract user’s interest for spending longer time in social media such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and others. The message he wants to deliver is to have self-control in accessing and interacting in social media because there is a possibility that the users are controlled by the algorithm instead of controlling the media.
“Interacting through social media is okay. But, spending an extended time in social media is not good as we can use the time for a better activity,” Hilmi explains to uns.ac.id, on Wednesday (26/5/2021).
This topic is chosen because social media has a significant effect and is globally accessed. On the other hand, social media become the closest application to the community’s daily life. Therefore, according to Hilmi, knowledge of social media algorithms is important. Interestingly, one of the references used in this essay is a movie entitled “The Social Dilemma.” A documentary movie in 2020 by Jeff Orlowski that uncovers the dark side of using social media and cyberspace.
“The movie becomes the foundation of my arguments in the essay. Afterward, I try to write those arguments in my essay,” Hilmi adds.
Closing the discussion, Hilmi reveals his hope to join various other competitions and strive to achieve achievement through it. Moreover, his journey in college is still quite long, which is his first competition during college.
“With this result, I become more motivated. For the next plan on other competition, I’m still looking for the opportunities, especially a similar competition,” Hilmi said. Humas UNS
Reporter: Kaffa hidayati
Editor: Dwi Hastuti
