In this essay, I am interested in discussing women in cyberspace and the present and future. This theme is interesting because women have played a role not only in the private sphere but also in the public sphere to occupy various essential posts in public life, especially in digital life. Because of that, the debate about women being leaders no longer sticks to the surface.
However, the problem in the future is how to functionalize women’s roles in line with technological developments, i.e. 5.0. This era is marked by the rise of the Planetary Civilization, in which all things are interconnected to realize a new concept: Artificial Intelligence. This era certainly demands a comprehensive understanding, as AI and Big Data technology have replaced some women’s roles today.
First, a female robot named Sophia was recently created in Artificial Intelligence. The female robot has become a citizen in Saudi Arabia. He was invited to various seminars in several countries. One of her frequently asked questions to Sophia is: Does she have feelings for a woman? Does he have a sense of love like a human being? Essentially, she is always asked about emotions or feelings as an ordinary woman. Sophia always answers this question with a smile and wants to say that she has feelings or emotions. It is conceivable that one day, Sophia will have felt entirely like a woman, and she will be able to respond to every sense of a man. Even in one interview entitled “Will Smith Tries Online Dating,” Will Smith attempted to kiss Sophia. From the search for Cyberspace, there are several female robots such as Harmony, Emma, Samantha, Erica, etc.
Uniquely, this technological revolution has not been so interested in creating male robots. However, some robots were created as soldiers or only as assistants, such as ASIMO. However, compared to the emergence of female robots, they are not so well known as they appear with the name above. Male robots such as Robocop and Terminator appear on the small screen. Even in the Transformers movies, almost all robots from outer space have male voices. It is impossible to predict when such robots will exist in the real world. At least, we have seen their prowess on the small screen. Usually, the most crucial impact in real life is the appearance of dolls that resemble them. However, this is only for children’s consumption. Meanwhile, the presence of female robots in the real world seems to have more desire, which is not for children but adults.
When I was a child, there was a female robot in television dramas called Vicky in The Small Wonders. He has a daughter who plays a robot in the television drama. In her daily life, Vicky helps with some housework. However, the robot actor is a child artist named Ann Smith Lawson in the drama. In everyday life, at least mine, children have started a dialogue with a female voice from Google Voice. This device can help my child do homework. They also dialogue like friends who accompany them when experiencing difficulties. Google Voice can speak Indonesian. When kids learn through this device, mom and dad joke around on WAG. Finally, their children are accompanied by Google Assistant rather than their parents.
The Father and Mother are accompanied by another Sophia, who is an adult friend. I imagine that a figure like Sophia will function like Vicky to children. Then their son, who likes to play games, will be accompanied by various friends in the virtual world. Then the household will become a kind of Humanoid family. Although this phenomenon has not yet existed, I predict that this condition will be created in our family someday. So, where is the fundamental role of women? Today, the role of women in the household is slowly being replaced. In this context, men with many capacities feel comfortable when various technological devices have replaced some of what women usually do. We do not discuss role sharing here. However, the roles of women and men have been divided. There, the meeting point is technology.
The above facts are a glimpse of the changes that have taken place in the Planetary Civilizations. This era emerged after the age of globalization. Many scholars examine the impact of this era on developed countries. However, in recent years, the effect of this Planetary Civilization has appeared in developing countries or even less developed countries. This progress process certainly has implications for society’s social system and order. One of the joints of life is family. When they become global citizens, this smallest group becomes a huge part. These minor units sometimes become “citizens” according to their habits in cyberspace. The Father has his community, starting from work, hobbies, alumni, family, and other societies that meet his needs.
Meanwhile, the Son did not lose. They have their community, which may be more than the Father’s. This is not much different from the mothers, who also have an online community with various group names. Finally, although they live in the same house, these individuals have different busy lives.
This busy mind creates a safe zone where they do not want to be disturbed by each other. The child who has a habit of playing online games has the total concentration to raise the level of his game to the top. The mother, who likes to listen to Ustaz A’s advice, is busy looking for similarities for the sake of similarities in the case that the Ustaz dissects with her own life. The Father did not remain silent. He had to answer every discussion on WAG while following the development of online news. Imagine if this family is like one of the most famous families today, where their children have Vlogs on YouTube to earn their revenue. The condition of families who embed their thoughts in cyberspace has become a new phenomenon. The role model has changed. The way of looking at the problem already has a global perspective. Of course, this change in the form of life impacts the reproduction of values, ethics, and morals in the family.
However, what will happen if family life in the future is further from what is currently being experienced? Connectivity has given birth to creativity. The family room is a place to give birth to various creative ideas that change the work landscape in society. Some people do not remember many things anymore, but rather remember keywords, leading someone to a door or window of almost unlimited information. This tsunami of information then changed the way people view it today. Of course, this wave does not recognize the term gender. Challenges and opportunities in the future will be experienced by anyone unable to get out of information addiction in cyberspace. Everyone will be swept away by their minds and souls by the flood of information.
Therefore, the family and the country have felt the information revolution’s direct impact. In this case, women are most affected by current conditions. This is because, in part, women’s roles, from private to public spaces, have been replaced by sophistication in information technology. However, this situation provides an extensive opportunity for women to fill the various roles provided in the era of Planetary Civilization. For example, what makes us say a woman is successful and happy when a woman can guide a family, when a child becomes a millionaire on social media, or a child who memorizes the Koran. What does it mean to be touched for a woman when their child passes the audition in a talent show on private television or passes to a partner a boarding school that offers various educational programs. What are the criteria for success when a woman can carry out alternative medicine through ruqyah with a woman to sit as a leader in a government institution?
When assessing the three symptoms above, the criteria for happiness and success will certainly not be the same. A female worker, now commonly referred to as an expatriate, in one of the East Asian countries has a salary of several million as a domestic assistant. However, she uploads her activities as a household assistant in her vlog until her income reaches thousands of dollars. Of course, we cannot judge him based on her job position because her income exceeds the country’s average salary of civil servants. Even though she was still a household assistant in a private room, she became a celebrity in cyberspace. Therefore, the information world can no longer provide a dichotomous assessment of a person. A person’s duties and functions are no longer as severe as imagined in the previous era. Uploading videos to cyberspace makes a female worker as famous as herself. However, his daily life is still a permanent job, namely, a household assistant.
Therefore, shifting one’s status is no longer seen from one’s job. In Indonesia, a young woman has become a millionaire on social media after having more than 10 million followers. However, a female millionaire in Malaysia is still trying to showcase her success on social media. The action of this female millionaire gets a lot of praise and criticism because she likes to flaunt her wealth on social media. Therefore, in the future, one wants to show creativity and activities that can bind people’s emotions. For this reason, women have the potential to be present as figures who are leaders for their followers in cyberspace. The power of emotion, one of the determining points in this post-truth era, has been taken by many women.
People no longer build emotional relationships face-to-face but through social media. For example, a simple woman from one of the provinces in Indonesia has a Caucasian husband and lives abroad. Thanks to sharing his daily experiences, he does not rule out the possibility of getting sympathy and empathy from the viewers in his vlogs. Because his emotions are represented by what he watches daily on social media, this relationship forms an attitude of respecting a person more for what he does daily rather than what he achieves in life. This form of emotion then brings happiness to specific circles.
In the meantime, women have extraordinary potential to participate from within the home through their various activities in cyberspace. It can be said that today’s women can become ‘home women’ with a million-dollar income. People used to work from home to earn an income. Now the house is a ‘production house’ for some women to make a living while carrying children, cooking in the kitchen, and cleaning the bed. They remain private but can also appear in public spaces to earn a living. This experience further emphasizes that women must build creativity, connectivity, and collaboration with anyone to make their identity appear prime in public spaces.
As for providing ammunition and intellectual and spiritual vitamins, women also do not need to go to school and recite the Koran. The motivators and inspirations are in their hands. Apart from that, this situation will force them to continue to provide an active function of reason and mind to explore their abilities. This group of women will later appear at the forefront as people who can lead themselves and others. The process of redefining public space, which will be dominated by cyberspace, certainly allows anyone to become a leader for themselves. This concept implies that someone who can explore their potential will become a player as a citizen of netizens.
Finally, women certainly have to rethink their leadership roles. By changing the landscape of life, women must also change their mindset, especially when they are no longer the central actors in reproducing values, morals, and ethics. These three things, in principle, have been instilled since they educate the children in the family room. Mother is the first teacher since the child is born. Slowly, the reproduction of these three things was shifted to schools. Today, schools have changed, and mothers have changed. They entrust their children’s education to places that improve values, morals, and ethics. However, when these three things are engineered by digital technology, mothers must rethink reserving their energy to play a leadership role in the household.
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