You better believe the non-profit Donate Life is loving Mark Zuckerberg right now. In an effort to “build tools that help people transform the way we all solve worldwide social problems”, he allowed Facebook users to have the option of making their organ donor status known their timelines.
In a post on the site, Facebook points out that there are 114,000 people currently awaiting transplants in the U.S., and millions around the world.
I’m sure Donate Life had high hopes, but just 24 hours after Facebook launched its organ donor drive, reported a 5,105% increase in registrations in California alone. “Thank you Facebook and every single one of you that said yes!” Donate Life posted a thank you to its Facebook wall along with this infograph showing the spike in donors.
“Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” this video of Kate Upton dancing in her underwear—this is the kind of thing we expect to go viral and, when they do, roll our eyes at the predictability of it all. But this organ donor drive—like Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” which takes 90 seconds to get to the chorus—is a surprise.
For starters, it’s pretty morbid—by signing up to become an organ donor you’re acknowledging that at some point you will die and will no longer need your organs. It’s also pretty selfless—you’re willingly giving away your organs to someone else whose life they’ll save. Morbid plus selfless does not usually equal viral sensation make.”
Perhaps the immediacy of Facebook is allowing people to ponder what their legacy will be. Not everyone can leave behind a huge fortune or fame, but you can choose to help save someone’s life, and in a way, live on through them. The Human Truth™ of the Giving Back™ wave is: “When we give, we also receive.”™
The vast majority of us want to do good, want to be good. Sometimes people feel they lack too much to be a “giver”. They could be “time poor” or well… Actually poor. I guess Mr. Zuckerberg has made available a way for people to donate -where neither of those things are an excuse.
