Siniukova N. A.
DOI: 10.32691/2410-0935-2019-14-163-173
Information about author:
Natalya A. Siniukova, post-graduate student, Junior Researcher, Institute of Philosophy and Law, SB RAS. Novosibirsk, Russia.
E-mail: sinuknat [at] gmail.com (sinuknat[at]gmail[dot]com)
Abstract. Virtual “intervention” into the life of the modern man and the society had a revolutionary impact on the development of health and disease phenomena. The shaping of an open, interactive illness experience is known to be a central point of these transformations. As proposed, the shift of illness experience from largely private and intimate enterprise into public experience, provoked by virtualization of illness experience, possess numerous social consequences. Drawing on the data obtained by the study among young bloggers, suffering from cancer, it is shown, that virtual communication among seriously or chronically ill people improves the emotional climate of the treatment process, improves the motivation to struggle the disease, contributes to the establishment of illness management strategies. The virtual groups of ill people spontaneous self-organization also arise in the virtual space, with the aims to enable mutual support, integration of the ill, improvement of the status of ill people in the society and their quality of life. On the other hand, the ill’s leaving for virtual space may contribute to the rise of the unwillingness to receive support, emotions, communication in real life, the “illusion”, overlapping values and events in real world. Furthermore virtual space of communication among the ill is examined as a forum for “testimony” or story-telling about overcoming of difficulties and suffering of the illness, gaining new meanings in the framework of the reality, shaped be illness.
Key words: phenomenon of illness, virtualization, virtual communication of the ill, social media, electronic support groups for ill people, interactive illness experience, quest narrative, illness stories.
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