Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Swafoto itu kemudian dibagikan di grup keluarga supaya saudara jauh juga ikut senang. - The selfie is then shared in the family group so that distant relatives can also feel happy.

Many people still say selfie (borrowed from English), especially in casual speech.
Swafoto appears more often in:
- formal writing (news articles, official campaigns),
- educational or government materials,
- people trying to use more “pure” Indonesian.

Both swafoto and selfie are understood. In this sentence, you could naturally say:

Selfie itu kemudian dibagikan di grup keluarga...

and it would sound very normal in daily conversation.

Why is itu placed after swafoto, and what nuance does it add?

In Indonesian, demonstratives like ini (this) and itu (that) usually come after the noun:

swafoto itu = that selfie / the selfie (already mentioned or known)
buku ini = this book

Itu here:

points to a specific selfie, not just any selfie,
implies that both speaker and listener already know which selfie (maybe it was just taken or already mentioned earlier).

You can drop itu:

Swafoto kemudian dibagikan di grup keluarga...

This becomes a bit more general and a little less specific. The original with itu feels more like “that particular selfie”.

What does kemudian do here, and how is it different from lalu or lalu swafoto itu…?

Kemudian means “then / afterwards / later (in the sequence of events)”.

In this sentence:

Swafoto itu kemudian dibagikan...
= That selfie was then shared...

It shows that sharing the selfie happened after taking it.

You could also say:

Swafoto itu lalu dibagikan...
Lalu, swafoto itu dibagikan...

Kemudian and lalu are very close:

lalu often feels a bit more casual and storytelling-like.
kemudian can sound slightly more neutral or formal.

All three versions are correct; the difference is mostly style.

What is the structure and meaning of dibagikan?

Dibagikan is a passive verb with affixes on the root bagi.

Breakdown:

bagi = to divide; in this context, to share
di- (prefix) = passive marker
-kan (suffix) = often makes the verb causative or indicates doing something to/for someone

So:

membagikan = to share something (active voice)
Dia membagikan foto itu di grup.
He/She shared the photo in the group.
dibagikan = to be shared (passive voice)
Foto itu dibagikan di grup.
The photo was shared in the group.

In your sentence:

Swafoto itu kemudian dibagikan di grup keluarga...
focuses on the selfie as the thing that was shared, not on who did the sharing.

Why is di used in di grup keluarga instead of ke, and what’s the difference?

Di and ke are different prepositions:

di = in / at / on (location)
ke = to / toward (direction or destination)

Here we have:

dibagikan di grup keluarga
= shared *in the family group (as a location/platform)*

We’re emphasizing where the selfie is (inside the group), not the motion toward it.

If you said:

dibagikan ke grup keluarga

it would be understandable, but less natural. Ke sometimes appears with kirim ke grup (send to the group), where the direction is clearer. For share in a group, di grup is the usual choice.

What exactly does grup keluarga mean? Is it literally a physical family group?

Grup keluarga literally means “family group”, but in modern Indonesian it very commonly refers to:

a family group chat, usually on WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, etc.

Context like dibagikan di grup keluarga strongly suggests:

“shared in the family group chat”

It doesn’t normally mean a physical group standing together somewhere, unless the context makes that clear. By default nowadays, grup usually implies an online or organizational group.

What does supaya mean, and how is it different from agar or sehingga?

Supaya introduces a purpose clause, similar to “so that / in order that”.

In the sentence:

...dibagikan di grup keluarga supaya saudara jauh juga ikut senang.
= ...was shared in the family group *so that the distant relatives would also be happy.*

Comparisons:

supaya and agar
- Very close in meaning: so that / in order that
- agar can feel a bit more formal or written.
- You can usually swap them:
  supaya saudara jauh juga ikut senang
  agar saudara jauh juga ikut senang
sehingga
- Means “so that / with the result that” but emphasizes result, not intention.
- dibagikan ... sehingga saudara jauh juga ikut senang
  = was shared..., as a result the distant relatives were also happy (not necessarily the purpose).

In your sentence, the meaning is purpose (they share the selfie with the intention of making the relatives happy), so supaya (or agar) is best.

What does saudara jauh mean? Does saudara only mean “siblings”?

Saudara is broader than just “siblings” in Indonesian. It can mean:

siblings,
cousins,
and sometimes even more distant relatives, depending on context.

Saudara jauh literally = “far relatives”, and in natural English it’s:

distant relatives (relatives who don’t live nearby or are not very close in the family tree).

So:

supaya saudara jauh juga ikut senang
= so that the distant relatives will also be happy.

If you wanted to say “siblings who live far away”, you’d normally be more explicit, for example:

saudara kandung yang tinggal jauh (biological siblings who live far away)
adik dan kakak yang jauh (younger and older siblings who are far away), depending on context.

What is the function of juga in saudara jauh juga ikut senang? Is it necessary?

Juga means “also / too”.

In saudara jauh juga ikut senang:

juga emphasizes that distant relatives are included in the happiness,
it implies not only the people nearby are happy, but also the distant ones.

If you drop juga:

supaya saudara jauh ikut senang
Still correct, but it slightly weakens the “also / as well” nuance.

So juga is not grammatically required, but it adds a natural-sounding emphasis that they are also part of the group who gets happy.

Why is ikut used before senang? Isn’t senang alone enough?

Senang means “happy / pleased”.

Ikut literally means “to join / to participate”, but in this pattern it has a more idiomatic nuance:

ikut senang = “(to) be happy along with others / (to) also feel happy”

So:

supaya saudara jauh juga ikut senang
≈ so that the distant relatives can also join in the happiness / also feel happy too.

Nuance:

supaya saudara jauh juga senang
= just “so that distant relatives are also happy.”
supaya saudara jauh juga ikut senang
= highlights that they join in the happiness that others already have.

It’s a very common way in Indonesian to express joining someone in a feeling or activity:

Saya ikut sedih = I feel sad too (because of your situation).
Kami ikut bangga = We’re proud too (sharing your pride).

Is the whole sentence in past tense? There’s no tense marker like “was” in Indonesian.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (past, present, future). Tense is understood from context and from time words like kemarin (yesterday), nanti (later), sudah (already), etc.

In:

Swafoto itu kemudian dibagikan di grup keluarga supaya saudara jauh juga ikut senang.

We infer a past sequence because of:

kemudian = then / afterwards, implying a sequence of events,
normal real-world logic (you take a selfie, then you share it).

If you needed to be extra clear, you could add time words:

Kemarin, swafoto itu kemudian dibagikan...
(Yesterday, that selfie was then shared...)

But grammatically, the verb dibagikan itself is tense-neutral.

Could this sentence be made active instead of passive, and what would it look like?

Yes. The current sentence is passive (dibagikan). An active version would name the person doing the sharing and use membagikan:

Mereka kemudian membagikan swafoto itu di grup keluarga supaya saudara jauh juga ikut senang.
= They then shared that selfie in the family group so that the distant relatives would also be happy.

Key differences:

Passive:
Swafoto itu kemudian dibagikan di grup keluarga...
- Focus on the selfie.
- The doer is not mentioned (or not important).
Active:
Mereka kemudian membagikan swafoto itu...
- Focus on who did the sharing (e.g. they, he, she).

Both structures are natural; Indonesian uses the passive quite frequently, especially in narratives and neutral descriptions.