MAINTAIN A CULTURE OF READING AND SKEPTICAL THINKING TO REDUCE

FEELING SUPERIOR AND JUDGE ABOVE OTHERS WITHIN OURSELVES

Abstract

Reading the book as the window of the world is true because only by reading can fill our heads
with a variety of new information that may be useful future for us. From reading, we can imagine
the beauty of an island as well as fun to explore the island while imagining the delicious of its
special food without having to go there, and judge someone without meeting, imagine a character
a novel and many more things that we get from reading. As time went by reading a story or
article not only found in a book, magazine or newspaper. Because in the era of globalization as
now the internet has become a necessity in society so not only a writer who can write a story or
event but everyone is free to write whatever they think. This is where the critical attitude of a
person should be increased in the teaser, to not easily believe in a writing. According to Kamus
Besar Bahasa Indonesia, skepticism can be interpreted as lacking in trust or doubt (on success,
doctrine, etc.). Because often an article can lead public opinion on an event or a person,
especially now that writing can be searched with rocks google features freely. Therefore skeptic
attitude is not always bad, even in today's age we need to train ourselves to not easily believe in a
existing news because not necessarily what we read including credible news or not. The lack of
interest in reading and laziness to find out about the truth is very dangerous now, people can
hate, feel superior to others and be easy to be fooled. The impact of the hoax can increase
racism, especially lately in Indonesia a lot of news that spread the fatal hoax, only from one
person who does not think skeptic of news read, confidently spread the news to others when the
news fake, which consequently can lead others to hate. This is very unfortunate especially with
the motto of Indonesia, Bhineka Tunggal Ika which means different but still one. If the false news
is spreading about natural disasters that could cause mass unrest. And there are still many losses
from the hoax. Though it sounds paltry, keeping a culture of reading and skeptic thinking can
prevent yourself from bad traits such as judging others and feeling superior to others so we can
coexist peacefully and happily.

Keywords: google, hoax, racism, skeptic

 Based on the study of Most Littered Nation In the World 2016, Indonesia's reading
interest is very low compared to other countries, Indonesia is ranked 60 out of 61 countries.
Means of 1000 people in Indonesia only 1 person who has interest in reading. Compared to other
ASEAN countries Indonesia is still lagging behind, its low interest in reading is due to the use of
the internet that turns into the primary needs of Indonesian society, this is expressed by Subekti
Makdriani, librarian of the main library of RI. It is not surprising that millennials are more
familiar with gadgets than books, whereas the benefits of self-reading are enormous, not only
adding to knowledge but can also make us more creative, easy to concentrate, helping us
communicate better, helping you with gadget dependence and more importantly, reading helps us
understand ourselves. It does not hurt to read a story or the latest information with our gadgets, in
addition to more practical reading on the internet is delicious. Especially with the electronic book
or commonly called the e-book to make people longer reading through the internet and ease of
getting the information we need via the internet. But the information we get from the internet is
not all believable, just like reading a book. Because reading a book means we read the thoughts
and ideas of others written in the book entirely. In addition, an average book has been handled by
the editor so that the book we read can be accounted for its credibility. I myself still like to find
the information I need via the internet, but now many social media circulating hoax news.
According to Shafiq Pontoh as Proventic Co-founder, the most widely distributed hoaxes are
social-political problems of 91.8 percent, SARA (Suku, Agama, Ras ,dan Antar golongan) issues
of 88.6 percent, health 41.2 percent, food and drinks by 32.6 percent, financial fraud cases 24.5
percent, natural disasters 10.3 percent and others. Such hoax stories are often disseminated
through social media, this is where skepticism should be sharpened so as not to be easily
influenced that ultimately it is easy to judge others who differ with us. Because feeling superior
to others is very easy to cause resentment and unimportant debate. Critical thinking itself means
less trust, doubt or suspicion. Unconsciously, we all have small skeptic attitude, such as when we
were small we love to ask about our parents why this and that can happen, with the passing of
time skeptic attitude is starting to disappear, because we feel already knowing many things.
Perhaps many people consider this skeptic attitude is a bad thing and others can avoid to get
along with you because maybe you are judged difficult to believe with others, wherein socializing
we need to trust each other to build a friendship. But in this paper I am not discussing such
skeptic attitude, here I am more telling about the benefits of skepticism in terms of accepting new
knowledge especially when we know a story, because it may happen just because our news is
easy to judge others and debate useless.

Being skeptical is different from negative thinking, in skeptic thinking we train our minds
to not easily believe in a news or issues in circulation by way of looking for opinions from
another point of view and then conclude itself, here for us we are diligent reading in order to find
data for prove the truth, no matter reading the book or internet the most important skeptic attitude
is always maintained in order not to misunderstand an information. While the negative thought
itself is a process of thinking that describes the bad side of something seen and experienced by
humans. Negative thoughts always look for mistakes, always see from the bad side only, and
usually this negative mind just happen in the direction of not want to seek another perspective
and just believe that his point of view is the most correct. An example of skeptic thinking is that
if someone else told me that he saw a unicorn in a forest, we would have to frown because we
were not sure of the story, so we asked the person to give evidence if he really saw the unicorn,
examples of how we think skeptic with not easily believe the news if it does not make sense and
without strong evidence to support the news.

According to Australian Radio, lies in cyberspace has occurred since the beginning of the
formation of the world wide web (www). Now even the presence of social media such as Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, and other social media become the main cause of hoax can spread more
quickly. Hoax is made by a person or group with diverse purposes. Many of the goals of internet
users to make hoaxes, ranging from the play - around, agitate aggression, politics, propaganda
and interests oriented to the economy. Problems arising from lack of interest in reading and
skeptic thinking can be seen in the problems that often occur in Indonesia lately, hoax news
spread easily in social media no age limit to know the news. The news of this hoax will have a
negative impact on anyone, the content is resentful and slanderous, hoax will be targeted to our
emotions so we can believe the news is true there. Hoax also provides negative provocation that
is to ignite hatred, anger and incitement to the crowd. It can happen because we easily believe
and believe that the news we read is completely true without being critical first. The things I
mentioned above are the origin of why a person can have the superiority of the other person and
easily judge others who differ with them. I have two tangible examples resulting from a lack of
interest in reading and skeptical thinking here I am not trying to belittle any party but I make my
own experience as an example so that we can become a man full of love for others, not easy to
judge others though different. So I have a friend who can practically idolize a public figure
blindly, because whatever is said by the character he always believes. Yet just by observing and
thinking logically what is spread by the figure is not entirely true because most of it is a
provocation to spread hatred that contains SARA (Suku, Agama, Ras dan Antar golongan). This
kind of incident does not just happen to my friends but in my family there are more or less the
same cases and parts that worry them with confidence to spread what they believe, whether news
or thoughts to the general public through social media. You could say they are both very active in
social media networking, as a result of this event I found the similarities of both of them are both
see the case only from one side that they like and believe it without doing deep observation of the
opposite side, have superior feelings toward others, their minds are not open to things that may
occur around them, lack of reading books and rely solely on information from social media where
we know its credibility is questionable. These things make my friends and family very easy to
judge others who differ with them. Perhaps we all wonder why in the survey shows that the most
commonly distributed hoaxes are social and SARA, because Indonesia is made up of diverse
ethnicities and religions, where each individual will retain what they believe to be born, SARA
becomes a sensitive matter to be discussed and it is not uncommon that politics makes SARA
issues to win its throne. That with the existence of hoax cases that develop in social media today,
would be very worrying in the development of democracy in Indonesia. Freedom of expression is
necessary to be upheld, but unlimited freedom will lead to division of unity in the state. This is a
serious threat if not immediately followed up. The habits of our society who are indifferent and
too easy to receive information without information source clarification is a scourge. This habit
can ultimately create public opinion scattered in mass and uncontrolled. For some topics it may
not be that much, but in a vital topic as in the case of SARA, it is clear that the hoax is a serious
threat to the country. Especially for people who use the internet actively. Hoax has a suspicious
indication, although it sounds suspicious, there are still many internet users who are fooled by
hoax in the mass media. Hoax has many negative impacts, such as hoaxes can waste time and
money. Hoax is considered to be wasting time and money because reading the news hoax causing
harm that does not mess around, especially for Internet users who have status of Students,
Students and Workers. Influence hoaxes to individuals are when the individual spends time
discussing and discussing the hoax news for long and protracted periods. Hoax can also be used
as a public fraud tool. The first feature on hoax news is Title in a news usually spice provocative
and accompanied by current issues. The hoax also usually uses sensational headlines so that it
can trigger emotional readers. In general, hoax news can also be taken from the source of mass
media or online media official but the content of the news is changed from the beginning to be
reduced to a little added to make the content of the news more sensational. Therefore, if you find
news that has a title or content that is a little sensational, it is better to find out more deeply and
skewer with the original news whether it looks different or not so we can see the same or not the
contents of the news. Furthermore, a powerful way to find out the hoax news is to check the facts
before believing in a story. Usually, if a news is not accompanied by a clear source, then it is
certain that the news is a hoax. And get used to checking the news we read, whether the news is a
fact or just an opinion alone. Therefore we should always cling to the truth, and if we find a news
that leads public opinion towards the negative, do not hesitate to report the news to the
authorities.

One of the bad habits and behaviors, but too difficult to realize is the nature of judging
others. Perhaps very much time is spent judging others rather than self-assessing. It's as if life
should focus on seeing others, and judge them, then thoroughly discuss their attitudes, attitudes,
behaviors, habits, and actions. The lack of interest in reading causes the information obtained is
limited, because it is limited then our thinking becomes narrow, difficult to accept another point
of view, not open minds because of the lack of knowledge gained from reading this, may not be
entirely just from reading alone someone has a closed mind has become its nature. But I am sure
that human nature can change with a lot of hanging out and reading, because the more we see the
differences and assume that we are still far from the right word then we can see that the
difference around us is a real beauty, so we are not easy judging others for being different but
appreciating the difference itself. It seems natural in our society to judge others because as we
live we will surely judge ourselves. Man is released freely as he pleases, including judging others
as he pleases. It is true that everyone is given the freedom to judge others, essentially different,
can be from hearing the story of people without the need to be studied whether true or not. often
happens in the community does not mean I consider this reasonable, because I believe every
human being we have a brain to control what we do include in judging others, I myself have
never seen anything that would be less pleasing but I use my brain and heart to hold it, so as not
to offend the person. And if I have to reprimand I still have to use a polite way so that no one is
offended.

The benefits of maintaining a culture of reading and critical thinking can reduce the
harmful effects of hatred in the community, why? From the problems that I have written above,
started from not like to read both books and reading through the gadget narrows our way of
thinking, if our mind is narrow it is easy to judge others who disagree. What is more concerning,
many of today's people feel superior to the people in their environment because they feel that he
is pretty smart with a little reading. In addition, people tend to receive information from one side
without growing skepticism. Too fanatical is also dangerous because it encourages a tendency to
behave destructively if his belief in a particular doctrine is ridiculed. There is nothing wrong with
putting trust in something, but it would be wise if the beliefs were born based on a series of
important phases. This phase I assume is a comparison phase, as you attempt to compare two or
more theories before you reach the final decision. From there can be drawn some important
points and then depending on your perspective, whether agreed or not. Yet from reading, we can
imagine things that may not exist in our environment, by reading we can know that the difference
is beautiful so we do not need to fear the difference. By reading we can get to know ourselves so
that it is easier for us to self-correct, too many and diverse differences that exist in this world if
we can not accept it then we ourselves are hard to adapt. Prepare mentally and emotionally to get
used to, so you can assess yourself. Moreover, when you are in a state of weakness, it takes a
strong focus on yourself, to make choices and decisions that strengthen themselves. Do not waste
your unique and extraordinary self, just to live in nature, attitude, behavior, character, and
lifestyle of others. Think and pay attention to your own life, forget it and leave it a habit to judge
and take care of other people's lifestyles. Be valuable to yourself, so that all the things you do
bring benefits for the good of everyone's life.

Due to the problem of reduced reading interest then the Indonesian government through
the National Library has presented the digital Ibasis through the e-Pusnas application with multi-
device tablet or smartphone. There are currently 12,834 titles with 125,875 copies of e-Pusnas
application books that are collections of National Library to date. All this aims to improve
reading culture in Indonesia. President Jokowi himself never tired of asserting that through the
future education of a nation at stake will be like what. Reading culture is part of the responsibility
of education. That is, the education system, starting from the basic level should be able to grow
the climate for the growth of reading culture. Through reading culture we can foster cultural
insight and cultural awareness of society in a simple way. Reading culture will also foster a
critical awareness of the community as a prerequisite for the growth of healthy cultural
ecosystems. Critical awareness can only be nurtured through a culture of reading that will
ultimately give birth to an intelligent, highly competitive and productive society. The habit of
reading a book does not form suddenly, so need coaching from an early age. It's just a habit to
read. The reading habit is a positive culture. If we do continuously, then we will get used to
reading. Indeed, the habit through the process, so that ingrained in us. So the habit should be
done early on. Children as the younger generation should have been accustomed to reading since
childhood, in order to get used to reading. From an early age, make reading as a necessity. When
reading is a necessity, it is not difficult for us to always love to read. At first, I was not a reader,
but I was grateful that when I went to college I was in an

environment that liked to read, I was amazed by those who were knowledgeable and
could talk to anything. This motivated me to train myself to love reading, The various ways I did
to drown myself in the ocean of words. Like me, people who since childhood are not familiar
with reading activities will experience some difficulties in the beginning. First, I have to get used
to sitting still for long to focus on reading materials. It's a bit boring. Just read the two
paragraphs, I want to stop reading immediately. At such moments that sense of laziness begins to
emerge. As a result, even finished reading. Second, understand and fully understand the meaning
and meaning of the word in each sentence. While reading, I often find a new vocabulary that I
have never heard of everyday communication. Plus every writer always has a different way to
create his reading material, either in terms of diction selection, style of language, and the order of
words of each sentence. Sometimes I still often confused with the author's intention for making a
sentence so complicated. Third, in my opinion, reading should have a high imagination. Different
from seeing a movie or video tutorial on youtube, while reading, I should be able to imagine
myself so that every reading can be easier I dive and understand. Read about any type of book,
although it is not related to what you are learning or not connecting with your current job, the
more you read, the more often you ask, the more often you ask our brains are more honed to
skeptic, if skeptic thinking already formed, and we become open-minded human beings. Then we
are ready to be human competing with the wider community because we become a positive
person supportive, not easy to judge badly against others and like Indonesian proverb "Rice
increasingly contains more ducking". Let us both leave the virtues indifferent, not interested in
finding out something, and not interested in a truth so that we become more skeptical and dare to
criticize (speak up) for all the problems around us. For the good of ourselves and the community.

Rather than always feeling superior and judge above others, why don’t we just enrich
ourselves with good readings and positive mindsets instead ? Come on, more active reading.
 Reference

Suciatiningrum, Dini. 2017. Peringkat minat baca masyarakat Indonesia.

http://www.tribunnews.com/regional/2017/05/15/memprihatinkan-ternyata-minat-
baca-indonesia-duduki-peringkat-60-dari-61-negara/

Anonymous. 2017. Kebiasaan “ Hoax “ Dapat Menimbulkan Konflik dan Dampak Merugikan.
https://www.kompasiana.com/nigelyuswantovalerian/kebiasaan-hoax-dapat-
menimbulkan-konflik-dan-dampak-merugikan_58fe13bf1fafbdbf2b049fd9/

Anonymous. 2016. Budaya Membaca untuk Kemajuan Bangsa. http://presidenri.go.id/berita-

aktual/budaya-membaca-untuk-kemajuan-bangsa.html

Anonymous. No Date. Arti Kata Skeptis. https://kbbi.web.id/skeptis