Illness and the Internet: From Private to Public Experience

Abstract

Illness is a ubiquitous experience in all societies. Until the past two decades, illness remained largely a private experience. With the development of the Internet, especially what has been termed Web 2.0, with interactive websites, illness has become increasingly a public experience. Vehicles like bulletin boards, chat rooms, listservs, electronic support groups, and more recently social media facilitate thousands of online communities where individuals with illness share information, interaction, experience, and advocacy. With the advent of social media, communication has increased and brought new challenges for online interaction. It is likely that the transformation of illness from a largely private to an increasingly public experience is a revolutionary change that is here to stay, with numerous social consequences.