Moral Development in Digitalization Era

Akhlak refers to a person's behavior, manners, and attitudes. In Islam, akhlak includes moral and ethical aspects that regulate the behavior of each individual in accordance with existing religious teachings. Morals can also refer to noble and praiseworthy traits that must be possessed and demonstrated by each individual, such as honesty, kindness, patience, and respect for others. There are several kinds of morals in the Islamic context, including the morals of nation, state, and organization. Examples are as follows:

- The Akhlak of Nation and State: Covers obligations and recommendations in the context of nation and state, such as deliberation, upholding justice, amar ma'ruf nahi munkar, and the relationship between leaders and the led.

- Organizational Akhlak: Involves the practice of morals in an organizational context, requiring mature mental, moral, and intellectual attitudes, as well as values such as tolerance, transparent communication, and the development of one's mental and moral attitudes.

In today's digital era, there are many ethical and character challenges that each individual must face. Technology and modernization is one of the factors that influence how morals, ethics, and the way individuals behave with each other. In this context, it can be seen the importance of understanding and developing the morals of organization, nation, and state, which includes aspects such as ethics, morals, and good behavior in our lives so that it does not cause bad or negative things. The negative challenges faced in today's digital era such as:

- The negative influence of social media and technology. Social media and digital technology affect how individuals interact and disseminate information, which can affect the morals of students and society as a whole. The use of social media often causes changes in adolescent morals, especially in social, religious and moral aspects. This is due to the proliferation of negative and uneducative content that is ultimately unfiltered by the current generation.

- Materialism, consumerism, and loss of privacy. The digital era brings changes in the way students and society deal with materialism, consumerism and maintaining their privacy. This happens because people can easily access online shopping sites and are tempted by the cheaper prices.

- Low moral formation in the younger generation. Today's young generation has challenges in adapting to the changing times and their existence which requires early moral education and research on morals in the digital era.

Moral development in the digital era is needed to embed morals, manners, and personal qualities into every individual. Even the teachings of the Prophet also emphasize the importance of maintaining ethical values, morals, and manners within each individual. The Prophet teaches several moral principles that are relevant in the modern era such as honesty, justice, patience, and respect for others. In the digital era, where information is quickly disseminated and privacy is easily threatened, the Prophet's teachings emphasize the importance of faith, piety, and akhlak in dealing with the various ethical and character challenges that arise. This includes developing good mental and moral attitudes, using technology responsibly, and maintaining the values of loyalty to the country and unity in the face of the impact of digitalization in the current era.

Ways that can be done to develop akhlak in the digital era include:

- Strengthening faith and devotion to Allah SWT: Increasing trust in Allah, practicing and also teaching individuals an understanding of the teachings of the Prophet can help overcome the worries and uncertainties of living in today's digital age.

- Safeguarding privacy and well-being: Protecting personal information, being careful in filling out or providing personal data, using digital technology wisely, and maintaining mental and emotional well-being by dealing with the negative impact of social media and content that causes negative impact.

- Beramar ma'ruf nahi mungkar: Using social media and digital technology to spread positive content, we also need to do Amar ma'ruf nahi mungkar which means commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong which means we need to remind each other of what is bad and not good to do, and also overcome slander and divisions between social life, nation and state.

- Increase individual awareness about digital technology: Understanding how digital technology works and using it positively for useful things and can benefit others, for example to support moral education programs and daily life.

- Developing mentality and morals: Overcoming the ethical challenges that arise in the digital age by developing the mentality and morals of each individual and maintaining the values of loyalty to the country and unity is also very necessary. This can enhance and strengthen each individual and keep them away from disunity among each other.

- Following the teachings of the Prophet: Following the teachings of the Prophet regarding honesty in what is done, justice towards others, patience in dealing with everything, and respect for others, is something that can develop the morals of each individual.

- Supporting early childhood moral education: Using digital technology to help early childhood in developing morals is also a positive action that can support moral development in today's digital era, the ease of accessing moral education resources for children on social media can be a positive thing, with the ease of providing education to children from an early age using digital media, it is hoped that it will be useful in facing ethical challenges that arise in the modern era.

The millennial generation is currently faced with challenges in adapting to changing times that require moral development and education in the digital era. The development of information technology is very rapid and easier to access and the role of digital technology in education affects the way of teaching and learning, and improves the quality of human resources if we can take the positive things and filter out the negative things. Digital technology affects how individuals interact and disseminate information, this can affect the morals of students and society as a whole because not necessarily the content they see on social media is positive and educational. Therefore, moral education in the digital era is very important and parents must provide assistance to their children from an early age, before their character and personality are affected by a negative environment. Do not let children grow up with bad morals and lack of ethics and manners because it can have a big effect in the future on individual life and society. Parents must guide their children with understanding and teach them good things. The habituation process of educating children to do good things and avoid bad things is a strategic method in educating and developing the morals of children of today's generation.

Dian Safara Azzahra_20230510143_K_AIK 1 Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta