“My left pinky hurts; I have a pain in my right eye, and an itchy nose.” Ever typed your symptoms into Google to see what was wrong with you? I propose that “Googling your symptoms” may be a form of online interaction that can lead to problematic internet use, related to too much time spent online doing this activity. This behavior may be considered normal when used occasionally just like any other internet space, but with increased use and an inability to stop, it can lead to more pathological issues than were present before as a result of the cyclical nature of problematic internet use and psychosocial well-being as described by Caplan (2004).
According to Caplan’s (2004) theory of internet use, those individuals with psychosocial problems and negative views of their own social competence are more likely to prefer online social interaction. This leads to excessive and compulsive use of the internet, further worsening their problems in school, work, and in social interactions. Caplan’s (2004) model illustrates how individual factors as well as affordances of the internet interact to create a space that can lead to a perseverance of the issues that initiated the behavior in the first place.
Individual differences that link these people to problematic internet use, on top of the addictive nature of the internet itself also impact their likelihood for uncontrollable use. Upon feeling the onset of a certain symptom never experienced before, people are often inclined to “Google” that symptom to see if they can diagnose themselves and find out what is wrong. This is fine for people who are not likely to become obsessed with looking up every ache and pain they experience. However, those who already have hypochondriasis, or a tendency to read into everyday normal bodily functions as the presence of a serious illness, may be prone to use the internet as a means of obsessively searching these bodily functions to the point that it becomes excessive and problematic. With increased internet use and Googling of their symptoms, people with hypochondriasis are likely to think that they have even more problems than they started with, thus continuing and worsening the cycle of pathology. When they start reading about all the possibilities that their symptoms could be, this just furthers their anxiety and concern.
According to Wallace (1999), the variant ratio schedule of the internet is what makes it so addictive. “Googling” your symptoms follows this same schedule of reinforcement, and so it may or may not give a definite solution, which is what conditions the person to keep trying until they get the “reward” or diagnosis in this case. Those who are constantly pestering their physicians and loved ones about symptoms and illnesses they believe they have, are likely to want to use the internet because it is anonymous and there is less social responsibility. The anonymity of Google allows people to type in any symptoms they want, without worries of embarrassment. They also do not have to worry that they are bothering “Google” about their problems like they do with their friends. Additionally, even after doctors tell them that they are completely healthy, many hypochondriacs will not believe them. Thus the constant availability and accessibility of Google allows them to search their supposed symptoms at all hours of the night without disrupting any real people.
However, this reliance or dependence on Google as a friend may lead them to turn to the internet as their means of comfort because it gives them the answers that their friends and physicians will not, thus diminishing social ties, increasing problems at school and work, and only furthering their focus and anxiety over nonexistent symptoms. Moreover, if people begin to view Google as a replacement for a doctor, in the case of true emergencies, people may not know what is really wrong with them. The negative outcomes of obsessive “Googling of symptoms” is not only like to increase and continue the existing problems, but may lead to detrimental problems if people truly do have symptoms that must be addressed by a doctor and these are ignored because Googling becomes more comfortable than seeking out a real doctor due to the affordances of the internet.
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As a student who is planning on going to medical school in the near future, your post was very interesting to me. I have learned about using the internet to self-diagnose in many of my pre-med classes, and think it is a very important point to mention when talking about problematic internet use. However, I think that the implications of "googling" a medical problem creates problems in a slightly different sense than Caplan's definition. Although your example of hypochondriacs is a good one for individuals who will spend enough time online googling their symptoms to deem it PIU, I think the bigger issue at hand here is what effect the internet has had on medical practice. It benefits the patients in the sense that they can avoid unnecessary doctor visits, but on the medical community as a whole it has begun to raise problems for physicians who are no longer being trusted and valued for their education, because the average Joe think he can diagnose his own problems using the internet. For example patients come in having "solved" their problem, and often demand a specific treatment they found online. When the doctor does his/her own analysis, diagnosis, and treatment plan, it is often met with objection by the patient if it doesn't match what google said. This phenomanom is one that I find particularly interesting, and a good example of how internet use truly is expanding into all fields of our daily lives.
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