The research suggests search engines have the potential to escalate medical concerns. This is partly because they were never designed to be diagnostic tools and partly because reputable Web pages always provide comprehensive listings of possible diseases linked to specific symptoms. But cyberchondria is probably mainly a product of users’ predisposition to escalate rather than settle for more reasonable explanations.
The moral? If you’re a hypochondriac, stay off the Web. And remember that, as the man said, the best cure for your condition is to forget about your body and become interested in somebody else’s.
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