# Trend on Facebook: Still photos being shared as video
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 12, 2017, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416 "2017-05-12T01:18:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416/1 "2017-05-12T01:18:24Z")
If you spend any time on Facebook maybe you’ve seen this. I’ve seen a few videos lately that are just 30 seconds of a still photo.
I can’t figure out why they do this–except that it is trivial to copy a photo, but Facebook does not provide any tools to download a video. This means that you can’t copy and paste a video, the same way you can with a photo, you can only “share” it–so it preserves the trail to the original poster.
Am I onto something, or is there another reason?
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416/2 "2017-05-12T01:24:52Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> If you spend any time on Facebook maybe you’ve seen this. I’ve seen a few videos lately that are just 30 seconds of a still photo.
I’ve never seen this and I’m on FB several times a day. Do you have any examples?
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### Author:  [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416/3 "2017-05-12T01:43:58Z")
Facebook plays favourites with what it displays to people, and it’s not very transparent at all.
One thing we (i.e. those of us who have to use FB in the office) have learned is that FB really likes to show people videos, while it is less likely to show text or photo posts.
So a 30 second video of a still image is fooling the FB algorithms and making it more likely for that post to be seen.
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416/4 "2017-05-12T02:16:11Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> I’ve never seen this and I’m on FB several times a day. Do you have any examples?
[This may be public](https://www.facebook.com/OldtimersPage/videos/466651813679410/?pnref=story). It’s difficult to share FB content outside of the FB world.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416/5 "2017-05-12T02:59:41Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> [This may be public](https://www.facebook.com/OldtimersPage/videos/466651813679410/?pnref=story). It’s difficult to share FB content outside of the FB world.
Interesting. I’m on Facebook multiple times a day, and I have yet to see that. I, too, assume it’s some way of gaming the algorithm so the post shows up on as many feeds as possible. Other than that, no clue.
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416/6 "2017-05-15T12:51:29Z")
This page for [Love Style](https://www.facebook.com/Love-Style-682329048475716/) is loaded with them.
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### Author:  [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416/7 "2017-05-15T12:59:55Z")
Those annoy me. Are we really so close to post-literate that even still photos are too much for the attention span unless there’s a Play button on there somewhere?
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### Author:  [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2017, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trend-on-facebook-still-photos-being-shared-as-video/786416/8 "2017-05-15T13:44:25Z")
What? No slideshow?