Paper short abstract:

Using an example of Lyme disease, this paper speaks on the dynamics of health knowledge exchange in the digital age, showing how online communication can amplify the controversial and the uncertain when it comes to complex medical issues.

Paper long abstract:

Lyme disease rises controversies on several levels. Whether it comes to prevention, disease detection, or cure, multiple areas of uncertainty bring around affects and emotions, that influence the social perception of borreliosis. In Poland, informal health advice flourishes predominantly through Facebook groups and pages. The platform is the country’s key social medium and constitutes its networked public sphere. Those seeking information on Lyme disease venture online, seeking advice that would counterweight their sense of uncertainty.

My long-term, ethnographic fieldwork across the Polish media-scape suggests that online platforms play a crucial role in helping to address issues straining the national healthcare system. Social media make it possible for hundreds of thousands of Internet users to take part in informal networks of knowledge exchange and indirectly undermine health-related knowledge hierarchies. Based on preliminary analysis, this paper will provide insights into how Internet users navigate controversial medical topics such as borreliosis, trying to minimize the sense of uncertainty through online patient cooperation.