Either greed, human nature of seeking easy money and a broken system that fails its members, or a combination of either of them, have led people to humiliate themselves, commit crimes and even murder.
Tired of being poor and jobless with their parents breathing down their necks while scolding them, two teenagers, AR (17) and AF (14) in Makassar early in January kidnapped and then murdered their friend, an eleven-year-old boy to harvest his organs and sell them for cash in an apparent goal of getting money to prove to their parents and make them proud.
Ironically, they were too naïve to realize before doing the killing that they just neither had the skills nor equipment to harvest the organs properly, let alone knowing where to sell the organs. In the end they were forced to just dump the boy under the bridge in an attempt to evade the police investigation.
But they were not so lucky. They were subsequently arrested and charged with murder with can carry a heavy punishment if they were proven to guilty in the court of law.
These two teenagers thought that by harvesting the organs and selling them they could get money and make themselves and their parents happy. Instead, they are now in jail for a very long time and wasting the life away.
What happens to people within the current digital world provides other examples – although less extreme than killing – of how people will want to sacrifice anything to get money which they though would bring them happiness.
For some, the development of digital technology means money is more accessible.
We frequently see someone become famous on social media because of their contents. Vlogging, gaming, dancing, and podcasts are the most viewed content in the internet. Unique and entertaining contents are what people want to watch. One of these contents that people are interested in seeing is flexing, the activity of showing off some things or achievements that others consider superior.
Content creators who like to show off on social media can draw massive attention from the netizens. Showing off their luxurious and fancy things like cars, houses, phones, and countless more drives people to watch, comment, share, and discuss it.
The netizens will split in two: supporting or hating the creators. Whatever they get, the creators will have more engagement, making them more famous. In turn, those who have big followers and influence can monetize it, and can easily get money.
Look at Mursid, who seems can create attractive content with unique ideas effortlessly. He has become rich from his contents on TikTok. He can afford a new car, house, and many things that most people can only dream of.
While Mursid can creatively produce unique content without shaming himself, others find an easy way without having to produce something creative, going the distance and doing the extreme to get more followers, clicks, likes and subscribers, and ultimately monetizing it for cash and luxurious brands, for instance, by showing their naked body, and even having sex online and in real time.
The latest development to generate easy money is a content called ‘Nenek Mandi Lumpur’ (mud bathing with grandma) live on Tiktok. The creator set up a mud bathing TikTok Live with his mom to earn gifts and convert them into cash. He exposed his mother in order to get sympathy and gift from the netizens.
Nevertheless, other people think this mud bathing live content is a new way to beg, an online begging.
For me, mud bathing is the weirdest content, showing a moral decadence and an example of how far people can humiliate themselves for money.
While many have sought an easy way out, others have actually put energy, effort and money to create quality contents without putting their humanity morality aside. It’s just that people usually only see the success and forget about the difficult process to produce such successes.
