Under the scorching midday sun of Ramadan, my wife visited one of the hype restaurants in Bogor to buy some food for our kids. To her surprise, the place was filled with young people openly eating and drinking, seemingly unbothered by the fasting month. Among them, she noticed a young woman wearing a hijab-possibly exempt from fasting due to menstruation-dining with her male companion in public without hesitation. My wife shared that experience to me and later we comprehended the ongoing trend among youngsters called mokel.
Mokel roots from Javanese means to break the fast secretly. This is actually not a new phenomenon; over the years we observed many have their lunch with shame during Ramadhan behind the curtain covered food stall. However, with the raise of social media like TikTok, this behavior has transformed into a new cool hype among youngsters. Mokel is now also an abbreviation of “mode kelaparan”, hungry mode. Representing the same meaning, Budi is another compendium for “buka diem-diem”, break the fast secretly.
Unlike before, mokel now is a hype that projects a symbolic bravery and proud to public for breaking the rules or custom. It is perceived as a cool mischief and challenge that everyone must try. Hence, we can easily find “mokel core”, a video compilation of people doing mokel without any hesitation and permissible cause. Then, with the attention and engagement from social media, this behavior invites other to replicate and at the end normalize this disobedience.
In fact, fasting during Ramadhan is one of the five pillars in Islam and neglecting it has a serious consequence. Ibnu Hajar al-Haitami, a renowned Islamic scholar from Egypt, in the book of Al Zawajir stated that abandoning the obligation of fasting during Ramadhan without permitted reasons by Islamic law is classified as a major sin. In a hadith, the Prophet Muhammad, in his dream, saw a group of people were hang up upside down with bloody mouth. They were those who break their fast before sunset.
Then, as a multifaith nation, should we be concerned regarding this phenomenon? The answer to this question may lie in one of the most famous experiments in psychology, the Marshmallow Test. It is a simple test developed by Walter Mischel from Stanford University in 1960s. In this test, preschool children were given a simple choice: they could eat one marshmallow now or wait 15 minutes to get two marshmallows. The results split the children into two groups, children who choose early gratification and delayed gratification. Then, this longitudinal study found, the delayed gratification group later had better SAT result and social skills capacity. When entering adulthood, they can maintain better close relationship, lower body mass index, and even higher income.
The study revealed the important role of prefrontal cortex of our brain for executive functions like decision-making, impulse control, and long-term planning. The prefrontal cortex helps suppress immediate desires in favor of future rewards. In the test, children who successfully waited likely had better prefrontal cortex activation, allowing them to resist eating the marshmallow. They also demonstrated better cognitive control that is essential for managing emotions and resisting temptations in everyday life. With those attributes, the delayed gratification group earned better life success than the early gratification group.
In the context of mokel, the behavior signals an apparent loss of self-control by choosing puny upfront benefit over long term future reward. Sadly, social media platform amplifies this trend and alters mokel’s image into something to be proud of, encouraging others to follow. With the widespread repeated pattern like this among our future generation, we should concern whether this loses self-control trend may compromise their decision-making process in education and financial activities.
For instance, in education, lower self-control may induce procrastination to complete task and consistency to persist through difficult subject. It will be more complicated with various distraction like excessive social media and gaming. Further, preferring immediate gratification over long term learning process may hinder someone to compete in higher education. In macro level, it may result in lower innovation in research and development as well as lack of high-quality workforce with specialized skills.
When it comes to financial activities, lower self-control capacity has a huge consequence. Young people who struggle with delaying gratification may prioritize short-term pleasures like buying the latest gadgets and impulsive vacationmover long-term financial security such as, savings, investments, and retirement funds. Lower self-control also may lure someone into debt traps. Last year, OJK released that nearly 37.17% peer-to-peer lending outstanding comes from generation Z and millennials. In a higher context, if a significant portion of young people prioritize short-term pleasure over long-term wealth-building, we will have less investment to finance infrastructure and cutting-edge research that can boost the economy.
Then, what should we do regarding this mokel trend? First, it is necessary to strengthen the awareness of delayed gratification behind the practices of fasting. It is not only the responsibility of Islamic leaders but also teacher in classroom and parents at home. Instead of solely see fasting as a religious duty, we can highlight its psychological and social benefits. With that, young people can understand that fasting cultivates self-discipline. Hence, they may be more inclined to embrace it beyond just religious compliance
Further, it is also important to promote social norms and cultural respect. Indeed, everyone has his/her concern that makes them not to fast during Ramadhan. However, cultural and social sensitivities also matter. That will inhibit wrong incentive to misbehavior like mokel in society.
Lastly, it is equally valuable to provide support for those who are genuinely struggle with fasting due to health or habit. Instead of merely condemning mokel, communities can support those struggling by sharing strategies for managing hunger, explaining the mental and physical benefits of fasting, and offering motivation to persist. (Randi Swandaru, PhD, Research Fellow at INTI International University, Member of IMM Malaysia)
