Discussions
Misinformation and Modern Quackery
Posted by Stillthinking • 3/16/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: diet, health, internet, Mental Illness, misinformation
I have noticed on these threads a recurring motif: uneducated, unqualified and misleading bloggers who claim to have diet, mental health expertise.
There are some who give advice on natural living, holistic living, proper diet and exercise. These people are not the ones I am talking about.
I am talking about the quacks who push ultra-low calorie diets, miracle pills for weight loss, and of course, cure alls for depression and anxiety.
What makes you qualified to blog about certain subjects?
Does it annoy you that the internet makes some people, instant experts?
User Comments
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I will start. I am an architect. My blog is about my personal history and I do not claim any expertise in psychiatry or health related fields. I am planning on launching a blog about local Chicago home furnishing businesses. This is an area that I have experience and education in.
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lol i'm Stillthinking
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I actually don't think this is funny. People who claim to be experts online can actually damage people who need actual help. It get's me all riled up just thinking about it.
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yeah its true.. Online experts(not all) is a fraud
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I am yet to be someone. My blog is still under construction & so you won't find any suitable stuffs. I have many dreams.. hope they'll be fulfilled
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How do you know what blogs to trust and what blogs are full of s**t?
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I would never take advice from a blog for that exact reason...for all you know this expert is a 15 year old kid who thinks they know a thing or two because they went to a couple of classes. -
Meh!!! aha when it comes to blog.. I'm more into photography & art stuffs. So I can assure you that these photoblogs are safe.
for others it is based on my eyes & my perception & the site details.
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There are many blogs devoted to health topics simply because the bloggers are blogging for bucks and the top keyword in Google Adwords search engine returns are the names of diseases and/or keywords focused on weight loss.
Here's an example: Mesothelioma - Asbestos Lung Cancer Mesothelioma (black lung disease). Click the search link and see what I mean www.blogcatalog.com/topic/Mesothelioma+/
Note that blogs on this topic are ALL monetized.
Here's another example: How many of these bloggers do you think are health and fitness experts? How many off them do you think are actually qualified dietitians, nutritionists, personal coaches, trainers, physios, etc. ?
www.blogcatalog.com/topic/weightloss/
Note that blogs on this topic are ALL monetized.
If you check the blogs dedicated to these key words you will note that the bloggers lack any medical expertise at all and are simply copy pasting medical information into these blogs. Cyberspace is full of charlatans motivated by money.-
I have come across several diet blogs that are actually dangerous to the health of their readers. People who claim to be doctors and come up with diet plans that are less then 500 calories a day and lack basic nutrients.
I also just came across a blog that claims to have the cure for mental illness.
I agree, most people are not qualified to blog about these topics. In fact, I think that claiming expertise amounts to fraud. -
That's what some refer to as freedom of speech --- Gag me! The same types also decry any form of censorship whatsoever.
There is no accountability in cyberspace. You can be a goat herd in a 3rd world country (just as example people - no disrespect intended), who barely speaks English, and who has never even been in a modern hospital as a visitor, and pose as an expert in treating Mesothelioma patients in a blog that you created for the purpose of earning pennies from Adsense. -
I would read a goat herder's blog if it was about goat herding, not modern medicine.
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Exactly. BTW I happen to be a person who likes goats and who knows something about their husbandry needs. Actually I have a pretty strong background in livestock and poultry keeping.
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There you go, TT. I would follow that blog.
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Those sorts of blogs remind me of the online equivalent of infomercials.
I think we need to train ourselves to expect that low quality faux information style on the web, the way we would on cable TV or on talk shows; we're so used to finding fairly good info online-- being able to access online encyclopedias, dictionaries, association sites-- that I think we tend to let our guard down a bit, and may have higher expectations for the kind of information we see online...
Only to discover there are snake oil salesmen in every medium.-
This is a perfect assessment of many healthcare and mental health blogs. Reader Beware!
I agree that people tend to take websites at their word, rather than question the content and expertise of the authors.
I never thought of websites as infomercials, but you're right. That's exactly what they are. They sell a specific point of view and try to disguise it as journalism. -
The weight loss industry is HUGE. There are many obese people who desperately need and want to lose weight. Some may be so suggestible that they believe they can pop a miracle pill back or suck up a miracle drink and cure themselves with these products.
So maybe I should start a blog on weight loss, go out and harvest some free content and cover the blog with advertising for weight loss products. Let's see what those top words are in the search engine results are again and use them accordingly.
IMO there are many blogs out there formed this way. They exist only for the purpose of making an income for an unqualified person, who lacks any expertise in the subject of choice. That person earns income by passing on, or shall we say -- passing off substandard and even completely misleading information, and apparently doing so does not give rise to an ethical dilemma for them at all. Hell, they even have such a lack of ethics and morals that they seek out other charlatans like themselves and enter click fraud schemes for even more advertising pennies.
@thriftshopromantic
What you have said is right on. -
The ones that really scare me are the ones that twist the free content into their own warped sensibilities. There are people who think crash dieting and turning away from psychiatric help are real solutions.
Look at all the people who actively campaign to spread misinformation. Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Jenny McCarthy.
Also, let's not forget religious proselytizers who deride mental illness as weakness of character. How many blogs are out there trying to debunk psychiatry and modern medicine in favor of healing through God?
I will not even begin to delve into the AIDS deniers.
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only my own experience.and a few dozen qualifications which mean less than the life experiences.
In the beginners mind there are many possibilities in the experts there are few.-
Life experience is invaluable. It is so important to draw wisdom from your own experiences. What I take issue with are the people who anonymously post columns online that spread misinformation disguised as expertise.
There needs to be an awareness that quacks and quackery have always existed. There will always be that person who claims to have all the answers. The internet has become a haven for half-truths and outright deceit.
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Mesothelioma - Asbestos Lung Cancer Mesothelioma (black lung disease)
Here are the facts:
Asbestosis is not treatable, although symptoms in the worst cases can be ameliorated with oxygen, steroids and other measures.
Pleural plaques and pleural fibrosis are also not treatable, but they generally cause no symptoms or discomfort.
Pleural effusion is treatable with removal of the fluid; if the fluid comes back, there are procedures that can be taken to keep this from happening.
Lung cancer is curable only by removing the cancer through surgery; however, at the time of diagnosis most lung cancers can't be removed, and then treatment will be with radiation or (less commonly) chemotherapy. Radiation and chemotherapy are considered palliative, as they rarely will cure lung cancer, only slow it down.
Mesothelioma is not resectable, since it involves the lining of the lung and the adjacent chest wall. Rarely, in highly selected cases, a few surgeons will attempt to remove the entire lung with its lining and parts of the chest wall; this procedure, called "radical pneumonectomy", might prolong survival in a few individuals but is not an option for most patients. Radiation and chemotherapy are not effective for mesothelioma, and most patients succumb within 12 months of the diagnosis.
Lung cancer is the most fatal form of cancer in the US, and other developed countries, today. And the fact is, that most of the cancer treatments that work well on other forms of cancer often don’t work well on lung cancer. Add to that the fact that lung cancer is often not diagnosed until it is far advanced, and it’s easy to understand why this disease is so often fatal. Six out of ten people who are diagnosed with lung cancer will die within one year. Between seven and eight will die within two years.
Presumably then what we would find in the majority of blogs dedicated to the topic would be personal accounts of people suffering with the disease(s). But this is not the case. What we find is a plethora of blogs kept by bloggers, who have no expertise to offer and who have copied and pasted medical information into posts and published them.
The reason they chose to have a blog dedicated to the topic is clear. The top Google keyword search results are for mesothelioma, so that's why they chose the topic and created a blog dedicated to it, and then covered their blog with Google Adsense and/or other related advertising. They expect to make an income from people clicking on the ads.
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