Sleman, Yogyakarta, Oct. 30 -- We live in an era where our smartphones know our tastes better than our own neighbors-what makes us angry, whose views make us agree, and what kind of folly we love to mock.

Smartphones constantly feed us a world that mirrors our own thinking, as if technology's sole job is to prove us right.

The problem is, we live in Indonesia, a country that was not established that way.

On October 28, 1928, youth from diverse backgrounds gathered in Batavia-now Jakarta-to pledge allegiance to one motherland, one nation, and one language. They had no timelines to filter out opposing views, nor algorithms to hide voices they disliked. Instead, they dared to envision a shared home despite their differences.

Nearly a cen...