Information-Seeking, Finding Identity: Exploring the Role of Online Health Information in Illness Experience

Abstract

The identities we hold have a relationship with how we come to express and understand our experiences of illness. Language forms a means for us to express this understanding and experience to others, and receive information to clarify our own experiences. Having access to new information when undergoing an illness experience can be integral in supporting decision-making for one's health and well-being and change how we understand ourselves and our experience. Individuals are exposed to information about experiences of illness via search engines, social media, and other platforms online. This online health information may thus significantly influence the decision-making process. Research is needed to understand how the affordances of diverse online hubs for health information influence how people understand illness experiences and seek care. How people use the internet for information-seeking is often researched in individual health conditions. This workshop aims to explore the different methods researchers have used to understand online information-seeking journeys and to identify how the internet is, or can be, used to help users make sense of, and give meaning to, their experiences. Through convening a methodologically diverse set of researchers, we hope to generate a foundation and cohesive field of inquiry and community within HCI.