by Putra Muskita
The Infamous Fail Whale
Indonesians are outrageously active on social media sites. Thanks to affordable Internet mobile plans and the popularity of the Blackberry, Indonesian twitters make up a large voice on Twitter. It’s no wonder that Indonesian-specific hashtags have even made it as a trending topic for several times now. A trending topic is the topic most tweeted about for the day. Clearly we are a force of social loafers to be reckoned with. Here’s a few notable trending topics for the past few months:
#tebakbandtranslate
On November 17 9:30 AM GMT, #tebakbandtranslate was at the top of Twitter’s trending topics. Tweet the name of your favorite band (or singer), translated into Bahasa Indonesia. Have your followers guess what it is. For example, there’s something as easy as Lada Cabai Merah Pedas (Red Hot Chili Peppers) to the downright silly like Panci Peter (Peterpan).
http://twubs.com/tebakbandtranslate
#indonesiabanget
This hashtag on the quirks and habits of indonesians rose to #2 on the trending topics! Our favorite was tweeted by @icewhitec: #indonesiabanget terbang ke Singapore pas Great Singapore Sale dan pulang bawa tas belanjaan super banyak.
For more click What The Trend and Twubs
Kelly Clarkson & Taylor Swift
Kelly Clarkson and Taylor Swift
Both of these American singers appeared on the trending topics despite the absence of a new album release, a new song, or an interrupted acceptance speech. It turned out that prominent concert promoter Adrie Subono (@AdrieSubono) asked whether he should bring Clarkson or Swift to Jakarta for a concert. Thousands feverishly typed (read: retweeted) on their Bolds and Javelins and BOOMZ, Clarkson and Swift became an instant trending topic. For your information, Clarkson won: she climbed to #6 on the TT’s while Swift stalled at #10.
Sency, Grand Indonesia
On November 30th 2009, two suicide jumps occurred within hours of each other in two upscale Jakarta malls. This prompted several exasperated tweets from those who don’t understand (“Oh, it’s the Indonesians again”) alongside tweeters who managed to grab a snapshot of the scene. The first jump took place in the Grand Indonesia shopping mall, with the female victim falling five storey’s to the escalator in front of Forever 21. The jump was apparently recorded on the mall’s CCTV. Thousands of retweets later, all three words were on the trending topics. The second jump took place in Senayan City mall, popularly abbreviated Sency. At one point, the word “Sency” went all the way to #4 in the trending topics, with “Grand Indonesia” at #6 and “Senayan City” at #7.
#Indonesiaunite
Following the suicide bombings on 17 July 2009 at the heart of Jakarta, a group of Indonesians gathered to create #indonesiaunite as a show of solidarity against terrorism. This is their message on their website http://indonesiaunite.com:
Kami adalah generasi baru, yang menolak untuk hidup dan tumbuh dengan rasa takut. Kami memilih menjadi pemberani.
This was coupled with a #twibbon, a tiny icon that can be pasted on your twitter logo to show your support. To date, there are 19,420 supporters with the #indonesiaunite #twibbon A movement such as this would not spread so rapidly in real life. Ask yourself whether you would put an Indonesian flag on your windshield before August.
But on Twitter, it was meme du jour.
