Jasper Ng Hong Han, 16

School: St. Hilda's Secondary School

Topic: Can social media make a positive impact on organ donation?

Award: Distinction, Senior Category, 2023

Implications of Social Media’s Shortcomings on Organ Donation

“I spent 30 hours on Instagram watching reels last night.” I hear my classmate yawn. His outlandish comment, though exaggerated, was enough to highlight the sheer grip social media has on lives today. Social media has taken the world by storm in the recent decade. Perhaps inversely, organ donation has not made much of a splash since this topic was first introduced in 1954 and has become a bigger issue in recent years. Fast forward to the present day, the internet is now an integral part of our day-to-day lives. One cannot ignore that social media can improve our lives, yet these benefits are often buried under many sticker layers of issues. Hence, I strongly believe that social media cannot positively impact organ donation due to the saturation of social media as well as the challenges that social media may pose. However, social media may also be able to promote a positive mindset towards organ donation. Despite that, if influencers, who have devoted their time to these digital giants, are not pardoned of social media’s negatives, how can the organ donation sector hope to capitalise on its benefits?

Firstly, campaigns on social media rely on the interaction between individuals and the media. The success and wide availability of social media has led to a near-infinite number of posts, videos and photos. This oversaturation of media makes it hard for organ donation to find its place on social media. Moreover, social media’s rapidly changing landscape encourages a fast-paced culture to develop, further cultivating a saturated platform. According to the “Data Never Sleeps 10.0” infographic published by DOMO, for every minute of the day, 66,000 photos are shared on Instagram, and another 1.7 million pieces of content shared on Facebook. The influx of social media posts can easily deluge an individual’s feed. This pulls their attention away from campaigns about organ donation and reduces the chance that posts about organ donation impact individuals, especially so when these topics do not interest individuals. As such, organisations that hope to spread awareness on organ donation may find it harder to do so. As a result, social media holds minutiae influence on organ donation. Hence, the detriments of social media decrease its effectiveness as a platform that makes positive impacts to organ donation.

Secondly, social media can have negative effects on organ donation, namely discouraging individuals from donating or supporting organ donation. Social media can be used to promote organ donation; however, it can also serve to break the bridge of normalising organ donation, especially when done incorrectly. Exposure to organ donation on social media may harm the willingness of people to donate their organs after death. For instance, a study conducted by Harel et. al. at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that after reading stories relating organ donation and human suffering, there were fewer people willing to donate their organs, or consider donating their loved one’s organs. Moreover, these people were less receptive to public policies promoting organ donation. These results suggest organ donation, and other similar topics, may not be able to effectively use social media to their advantage as its negative undertones may lead to negative public reception of such concepts, widening the gap to understanding organ donation. Furthermore, over the course of time, as more people are exposed to organ donation through social media, their thoughts and feelings towards organ donation will become more indifferent. To illustrate, a study published by Wiley-Liss Inc. found that repeated exposure to violence in media caused participants to feel more apathetic to victims of violence. Drawing a parallel, the constant exposure to organ donation may numb the empathy of individuals, causing them to care less about those in-need of organs. This will reduce organ donation rates as a result. Hence, the balancing act of swaying public opinion on organ donation through social media may be too delicate to yield a positive result, suggesting that social media cannot make a positive impact on organ donation.

On the other hand, social media campaigns can effectively capitalise on human emotion and use sympathy to influence individuals to support organ donation. Human emotions often dictate our decision-making; These emotions can be influenced by our five senses: sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. Social media affects 2 of the 5 senses, namely our auditory and visual senses. To illustrate, a model of emotion-based decision making by Juan D. Velasquez proposes that primary emotions, such as fear or sadness, play a key role in an individual’s emotional response to stimuli. As such, when campaigns are able to portray organ donation in a sympathetic light, as well as convey the woes of those in-need of organs through visual or auditory means, these campaigns can cause changes to the decisions made by users who view the campaign. An example of social media in action would be Dhar Mann, a popular YouTube channel which produces heart-warming content, and in the process, promotes good values as well as sheds light on important topics, such as organ donation and racism. These videos have garnered over 8 million views worldwide, highlighting the sheer magnitude of influence that sympathetic videos can achieve. Hence, in this regard, social media can still actively sway an individual’s decision by influencing their emotions using ethos, allowing for positive changes to occur in the organ donation field.

In conclusion, social media can be characterised as a massive labyrinth with no signs or directions. While this uncharted territory can be tapped upon, the positive yield it holds is not substantial enough for organ donation to have truly been improved upon. We need to consider our method of communicating information to the public in order to achieve our desired outcome, that is to promote organ donation. Otherwise, campaigns on social media may be nothing more than a platform to “make noise”, rather than to make a substantial contribution to discussions on organ donation. These campaigns could even have adverse effects on public opinion through unintentionally discouraging individuals from donating. Although social media may not have positive effects on organ donation, we must remember that the social media field is constantly evolving. With this in mind, the future may hold boundless opportunities for social media to become a platform that can have profound impacts on the organ donation field.

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions expressed in the essays for the Live On Festival 2023 are those of the participants and are not endorsed by the National Organ Transplant Unit (Ministry of Health). To learn more about organ donation and organ transplantation in Singapore, please visit www.liveon.gov.sg