Well - it is both good and bad in my view (uhh - how decisive of me
)
What I mean is that a wealth of information is now availble at ones finger tip, where before one had to wade through lexica, ask people and go to the library and so on. Now it is simply to log on to the web and spend some time searching.
It also means that people can challenge other peoples ideas and opinions - and thereby their own - and communicate across borders and races.
So it is easier to acquer knowlegde now, or rather ... information, because knowlegde is not simply finding the infromation. It is how to use it.
However, this is the "optimal" scenario.
The net has also provided many people with the means to afferminate their bias and conceptions, because frankly - anything you can think on, and it is likely on the Internet. So people have easier time to find others with similar opinions and can then sit and confirm themselves they are right and everybody else in the world is wrong. So in that aspect - information - can be misused as well. Sort of the good ole saying (if you can use old in regards of a technology which have only been commonhold for about 10 years) that "If it is one the internet, it must be true". That is definately a negative aspect.
As for your medical aspect (which where what you actually was asking), then I don't discard that it might be true, that more people might try to selfmedicate, but I'd think - withouth any proof
- that such people would be the one trying to do so anyway, and would avoid going to the doctor as much as possible and read medical encyclopedia from their shelves of from friends/family etc. And I don't doubt some people would blindly follow what they read - but then again - I would think people did that before as well with books and encyclopedia.
I also personally read some medical information once in a while, when feeling down to find out indicators as to what might be wrong with me.
Overall - I think the masses of information availble on the Internet is a generally positive thing, but I'm likely very biased by the fact that I normally "live and breathe" information from the web.
I use it in my daily life both work and outside work. For work I read techincal information, share my knowlegde with others as I soak up others from message boards and articles and finding inspiration how to solve problems. Outside work I use it for relaxation (such as this board) and getting news, stockmarket, communicating with friends and relatives and all that. It would be impossible if it wasn't for the vast amount of information on the web, because then it wouldnt' have been as usefull as it is.