Internet Cures: The Social Lives of Digital Miracles

In health care, we come across daily promises of miraculous cures for various ailments. However, in the digital era, the dynamics of experiencing and practicing these remedies have changed.

This book explores the intersection of miracle cures and technology, showcasing their transformation into hybrid forms, such as handwritten recipes captured in photos or tutorials streamed through videos. Combining computational social media data with ethnographic insights from Vietnam and the US, the book captures the interconnected lives of these cures in the digital realm with a unique methodology.

Unravelling the intricate connections between social, technological, biomedical and non-biomedical spheres, this is a significant contribution to how social scientists study online media.

Dang Nguyen is Research Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.