Abstract
This research is a qualitative descriptive study that aims to describe the religious understanding of Madrasah Aliyah (MA) students in Gorontalo obtained from online media. It was also conducted to determine the school's response in harmonizing religious understanding. This study aims to answer the following questions: (1) How is the religious understanding of Madrasah Aliyah students obtained through online media? and (2) How do the schools respond and harmonize the religious understanding of students who interact with online religious sites? Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documents study, by targeting Madrasah Aliyah students, teachers, religious leaders, academics, and community leaders. The results showed that MA students use online media as sources of learning materials and religious content with the duration of accessing online media reaching 4 to 10 hours per day. It has influenced the understanding, attitudes, and religious practices of MA students. The understanding and practice of "exclusive" religion have become widespread, among students no longer celebrating the Prophet's birthday (mawlid), barzanji, tahlil, prohibiting to wish someone Merry Christmas, forbidding music, forbidding to take self pictures, and considering the traditions of the Gorontalo people which aren't following Islamic values as heretical and forbidden. As a response to dealing with the problems above, the school tries to align students' religious understanding by strengthening religious moderation for teachers and students, building communication with students in social media, and providing mentors for students. This study recommends: (1) the importance of strengthening the understanding of religious moderation to teachers and students, (2) encourage religious institutions such as NU and Muhammadiyah to use online media as a da'wah tool, and use language that easy to understand by the millennial generation.
Highlights
Abstrak: Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif-deskriptif untuk mendeskripsikan pemahaman dan praktik keagamaan pada siswa Madrasah Aliyah (MA) di Kota Gorontalo yang diperoleh melalui media online
Research conducted by the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII) in 2018 stated that there were 171.17 million internet users in Indonesia, involving 5,900 samples, 71.8% of them are recognized as students
The concern is if students intensively consume descriptive and closed religious understandings, it may encourage students to form close and exclusive generations, which aren't compatible with the survival of the nation and state
Summary
New media (internet), as new invention of technological industry, became a popular media who able to surpass conventional media, both printed and visual media. It’s interesting that the media have become a cultural, political, and economic entity, and led to ideology and even religion entities1 In this era, the media is no longer something foreign, and even, it has become the centre of communication, especially the internet, that popularly used by individuals. The new media (internet) that is currently booming provides easy access to communicate and present much information from anywhere in the world. Its presence has outperformed the conventional media such as radio and television The existence of this new media has changed the world of communication. Consumption of a variety of religious sites will, form different understandings of religious aspects It can have both negative and positive impacts on students. The aim is to conceive the understanding and practices of students who have accessed online media and read how the schools harmonize the understanding and practice that are received by students through online media
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