How often have you seen advertisements promising that you
will lose a ridiculous amount of weight in a short amount of time or an
advertisement for a ‘detox’ tea? How many ‘experts’ do you see giving advice
that often conflicts with one another? These
days in the health and fitness industry, bullshit is rampant and it can be hard
to determine who is knowledgeable and providing correct information and who is lying
for their own personal gain; whether is it to sell you a product, a workout
program, or just to mislead you. Most of the products ‘fitness experts’ try to
sell you are supplements and the rise in social media usage has given these
people the world’s largest stage as a platform to push their products.
According
to the New York Times, “the dietary supplements that are the backbone of
wellness make up a $30 billion a year business despite studies showing they have
no value for longevity.”1 The
vast majority of the supplements being sold promoting things such as weight
loss are snake oil, a term used to describe products that make false claims and
provide no real value to the consumer. To the average consumer trying to better
themselves and get healthier, the overload of conflicting information can halt their
progress or even stop it entirely because of bad information they may be
receiving; ironically making them unhealthier in the process.
Frankfurt writes in On Truth, Lies, and
Bullshit, “The fact about herself that the bullshitter hides… is that the truth
values of her statements are not of central interest to her.”2 This quote holds true to many of the gurus trying to mislead
people into buying their products or programs as they are knowingly
bullshitting to profit off of you. However there is a gray area. There exists
people who may be misleading you, but unintentionally. They may just be ignorant
to new research and have outdated information at their disposal. Frankfurt also
writes, “for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers
his statements to be false”2. It is important to be aware of these
people’s intentions and whether they seem to be genuine or just trying to sell
a product.
1. Gunter, Jen. “Worshiping the False Idols of Wellness.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Aug. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/style/wellness-industrial-complex.html.
2. Frankfurt, Harry. “On Truth, Lies, and Bullshit.” The Philosophy of Deception, 2009, pp. 37–48., doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327939.003.0003.
I think that this is a really important topic. Obviously there is a lot of fake information circulating around the internet, but this information could be super harmful when it is directly related to your health. A lot of the detoxes and protein powders that influencers promote don't even provide a full list of ingredients, so it's difficult for consumers to fact check their benefits. Overall, I really enjoyed this post. However, you mention at the end that we need to be aware of influencers' intentions. I think your post would benefit if you elaborated on this. How can we raise awareness and filter through all the information we're given?
ReplyDeleteReally engaging title and visuals throughout the blog. I really like the topic and is very relatable and brings up a good question to society. What could separate real from bullshit for these snake oil products in terms of health and fitness? I believe a way to improve your blog could be to dive deeper into Frankfurts article rather than use it for support towards the end. Another thing that could grab the reader’s attention would be to talk about an example of a popular influencer who is clearly bullshitting about a product for personal gain - like the Kylie Jenner photo at the top. Overall I thought it was really great!
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