The Bad Side of Gimmick and Social Media for JKT48 Members

We are still not finished with our testimony about Ochi’s graduation when suddenly Cleopatra Djapri (Cleo) said on her twitter that she is no longer a JKT48 member and will likely to graduate from the group. Furthermore, her tweets are deleted and remain unanswered.

I am not a Cleo oshi , and I won’t talk further about her regarding on her attitude or her life or anything that goes too deep and touch privacy things. I will talk about the gimmick of JKT48 itself. One of the uniqueness of JKT48 is the members have a twitter account, and just like the account of any other public figures, they will tell the world what are they doing, what will they gonna do, and the most important is interacting with their fans and appreciating the gifts that was given to them.

Twitter, is a cruel place, you often will be judged by public on your twitter account. Indonesia is ranked fifth as a country that has the most user twitter in the world, and twitter is like a must here. Twitter, is a place of annoying people sometimes, many people tweet their activities uselessly like they have no life, when they eat they tweet, when they take a shit they tweet, when they angry they tweet, frankly twitter is like a place of your emotions and thoughts.

All JKT48 members have their own Twitter, and it turns out like what I stated above. Twitter is like a place of your emotions and thoughts. Members often speak their thoughts, their emotions, and their anger in Cleo’s case. Cleo said that she’s tired of some staff’s treatment, and it’s a questionable motive for her to said something like that, there goes the bad side of Twitter.

I can fully understand the function of Twitter for JKT48 members, JKT48 need some recognition since the concept of idol group in Indonesia is no where to be seen before, and Social Media is one of the right tools for gaining popularity.

Twitter is a gimmick for JKT48 , and it’s the right thing to do from business’s perspective, but still will be the problem if the members can’t manage it well. Some Indonesians didn’t even have a Google+ account before they know JKT48.

I won’t compare and don’t want to look like a social media expert by comparing, but I think Google plus is better than Twitter for the members. Their sister in Japan have Ameblo as blog to share their activities and only a few of them have a Twitter account. Let’s say they are really know the bad side or they just don’t want to be exposed more, but being considerate is the right thing for idols.

After all, I will always questioned the gimmick sake for some issues and intolerable rumors. Cleo’s case will be a lesson for us, that Twitter has no good purpose if you can’t manage it well especially if you are a public figure. Cleo’s case will lead us to many debates just like Ochi’s, I hope you are a thoughtful person because these things are intangible and muddy.

Goddamn Gimmick.