A group of researchers has documented a new Web danger, people who imagine they have medical symptoms due to reading about diseases on the Web. From the Microsoft Research report abstract:
the Web has the potential to increase the anxieties of people who have little or no medical training, especially when Web search is employed as a diagnostic procedure. We use the term cyberchondria to refer to the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology, based on the review of search results and literature on the Web.
(via Slashdot)
Cyberchondria: Online health information and health anxiety: http://criticalscience.com/cyberchondria-online-health-information-health-anxiety.html
Posted by: Ben | June 04, 2012 at 20:33