ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been a rapid expansion of health-related resources on the Internet and within other cyberspaces. In various medical discourses, it is widely recognized that these resources are used increasingly to access information about health, illness and medicine (Cook and Doyle 2002; Lewis 2006). Many articles that discuss how it is important for health care professionals to take into account the Internet begin with statistical citations about how many users are participating in this new cybermedical space. We will do the same. In 2006, it was reported by the Pew Internet & American Life Project 2006 that 80 per cent of all adult Internet users in the United States (over 113 million individuals) have searched for health information online (see Fox 2006). Indeed, health-related websites and discussion lists are said to be the most popular resources on the Web (Eaton 2002; Wilson 2002). Scholars of digital culture will not find this surprising. The prevalence of debates about the body and the Internet or virtual realities suggests that body issues are important subject matter to Internet users. To this extent, medicalized discourses on the body find a natural habitat within online environments.
