We have resorted to online reviews for everything now, from books and movies, to researching what laptop or smartphone to buy, to the best Indian restaurant in town, all the way to the top ten best liquid eyeliners on the market.
Online reviews offer a fast and easy way to access information about the users’ experiences of certain products and services, without having to ask every single person we know if they’ve tried them and what they thought of them. But how much can we really trust online reviews, really? Like everything, online reviews have pros and cons, and we should be aware of both as we venture the world of cyber opinions.
The Good
There’s a significant number of reputable blogs and websites – as well as some accounts on the various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram – that offer honest, unbiased reviews based on the writers’ trials and experiences. They can be very diverse, covering a plethora of topics, products and services, all at the click of a button.
The good thing about these resources and reliable reviews on sick-review.com is that the review authors try to cover all the possible angles in their articles, trying to be as objective as possible, giving readers the full picture and triggering critical thinking in the process. They simply lay out the good and the bad, letting readers decide on what works best for them.
The Bad
Many times we discover that the blogger or author reviewing certain products were paid to do so by the business itself, rendering a shadow of bias and giving a positive review, making it feel unreliable. The problem with these reviews is that they only focus on the good aspects of a product, like how affordable it is, or how conveniently portable, but fail to mention the drawbacks like poor built or sub par performance.
The problem with these reviews is that while they give readers a good peek into the pros of paying for something, they can be quite deceiving. This is why some social media platforms now impose a policy that influencers should always mention if a review is paid as part of their content.
When you are looking at online reviews, always make sure to read up on the product or service of interest on several various platforms and portals. Instead of relying on just one reviewer’s opinion and one source, dig a little deeper. Check the company’s Facebook page and see what people are saying in the reviews and comments sections, and Google as many reviews as possible and read the different opinions, weighing your options. And because you shouldn’t always overlook a paid review, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to read them anyway, for they may shed light on certain benefits you weren’t aware of.
The world of online reviews is vast and complicated, but if you are about to make a significant investment in a certain product or service, it is well worth it to do all the research you can and know what people are saying about it online.
