Health articles/presentations on Facebook

[johnkerr]

I have followed health articles on Facebook for some time and have noticed some rather disturbing trends. Originally a number of the articles were informational (ie: not selling something) although there were some presentations that were actually just advertisements. The changes have been towards the presentations all being ads. The most annoying thing I have found is that the length of the ads is getting ridiculous. They are predictably repetitive, almost to a script.

If I told you that a presentation was 60 minutes long, would you watch it? I’ll bet you wouldn’t. A long presentation 2 years ago would have been 30 minutes long but many are now 60 minutes long and seriously I think if I removed the repetition and rubbish I could present the information in less than 10 minutes.

I have a screen recorder which allows me to record a presentation without watching it. I can then see how long it is and examine parts of the video. I can go to the end of the video and find out what it is they are selling. I can skip ahead and find out how long it takes to provide the information promised at the start of the video. What I have discovered is that these presentations are becoming a complete waste of time and I can’t really see that these longer repetitive presentations would be serving the needs of the people selling stuff as I think many people watch the first couple of minutes and then stop it so they don’t waste a lot of time.

What do others think of these presentations?

[draughtrider]

10-15 is my limit - especially if the salesy is strong ...

[natural.thought]

What do you mean by Facebook presentations? Is this a live video broadcasted from a health guru page?

[johnkerr]

My apologies. I just checked and realised that the majority of these presentations were coming through emails rather than Facebook. Some of them have come through Facebook, however. The email sites are health/fitness/wellness sites, some of which are informational and do sell 'medicines', but the products are in 'clear view' in that you can see the product, click it and it will give you the details. Many of these sites are run by well known (American) health experts. What my complaint was about is that some of them are putting on "short" presentations (some not even related to the site's normal business) where you have to wait for nearly an hour to find out what is being sold. Just to give you an example that has appeared on both email sites and Facebook sites, if you see an article that talks about regaining 20/20 vision, just follow it through for a minute or two and you can be 80% sure that it will suddenly begin showing you a presentation about an Australian indigenous sight gaining strategy.

I guess my main complaints are that the presentations have become so long (up to an hour) and they are initially disguised as information. It's only near the end you realise it's an ad. Finally, the same ad/presentation is being used by multiple businesses. They are slightly disguised at the start so you don't realise that.

[meltam6554]

Hi @johnkerr

I spend quite a bit of time looking at health related topics, but don't see the adverts you are talking about.

Two suggestions;

Firstly, check your sources. I suspect a bit of careful source selection will assist you.

Pick sources of information that are not, and will not be trying to sell product, such as recognised medical and academic institutions, or government organisations.

If you subscribe to emails or Facebook groups that are about promoting products, or rather do not exclude the promotion of products then you will get ads.

Secondly, on your browser use something like Adblock Plus, Privacy Badger, etc to stop ads appearing. Within Facebook I use Social Fixer which will stop ads and a lot of other junk within Facebook.

[natural.thought]

It sounds like the advertisements are inside the videos. As in, the presenters are holding the product or the product is sitting wwithin the frame of the video?

If so, I'd be very careful of what 'expert information' they are sharing with you. The internet is rampant with pseudoscience and the health industry is one of the most affected. If they are constantly trying to sell you something, that is their motive. They don't want your health, they want your money.

Double check their claims before you buy anything, or accept anything they say as truth. Make sure what they say is backed up by real scientists, not just some easily googleable websites. It can be hard to fact-check everything they say, because they say so much and it all sounds 'logical', but it'll be worth it to invest the brainpower now rather than invest your money and your health in what could very well be snake oil.

I hope these tips help