In this rapidly changing world, the development of technology has brought the entire recent generation to be accustomed to the internet. Most millennial are most likely to grow up online on social media. However, it is not all the time that social media is something that will be good for youth, it also comes with its advantages and disadvantages. With constant exposure to internet and social media, it does not rule out the possibility that the spread of hoax news and speech hate will keep on increasing in Indonesia. Thus, smart and responsible youths are urgently needed in this era. This background case has provoked Keminfo (Ministry of Communication and Informatics) to create an event for youth namely Festival Literasi Digital (FIRAL) titled “Literasi Media dan Digital Sebagai Tulang Punggung Kebhinekaan Indonesia” to empower Indonesian youths and encourage them to use social media wisely and smartly.

This digital literacy festival was launched for the first time last year in Universitas Pasundan, Bandung. There are various workshops conducted in this festival, and each of them has been named after fun & creative abbreviations. For instance, one of the workshops which was conducted in Meeting Room UC is titled “GEN POSTING”, and it stands for Generasi Positif Thinking (Generation of Positive Thinking). There are also other workshops with various titles such as Incakap, UU ITE, IGRS, SiVION, and Flash Blogging and others which are held in different venues in UPI.

“GEN POSTING” workshop was steered under the theme of “Menjadi Kaya dengan Karya yang Positif dan Kreatif” or simply translated as ‘how to be rich with positive and creative works’. A well-known and successful comics artist, Reza Mustar, or widely known as Komikazer was invited as a guest speaker in the workshop. He explained how he could be engulfed in the comic world and end up as a cartoonist & entrepreneur all at the same time. Because he posted most of his works on digital environment, Reza Mustar explained that everyone can be easily influenced by the content in social media, so it is everyone’s responsibility to be aware of what they post and the future impact that may happen.

In this workshop, Reza Mustar also showed some of his artworks which has been successfully posted and gained so much attention on social media. Most of his works are simple, minimalist yet possess rather deep meaning if we take a closer look at it. At the end of the session, the audience was invited to make a comic of their own while following the instruction and lesson from Reza Mustar.

One significant thing that can be highlighted from the workshop was the message for Indonesian youth to keep themselves busy by doing things that they are passionate about and becoming productive. It is important to always pay attention to what we post on social media, as it may leave good and back impacts on other people. Hopefully, this workshop and literacy festival can create a whole new generation of smart and responsible youth in Indonesia.