Emotion and Experience in Negotiating HIV-Related Digital Resources: "It's not just a runny nose!"

While digital technologies are increasingly being used to provide support and diagnoses remotely, it is unclear whether they offer adequate emotional support and appropriate messages in navigating complex, stigmatised and sensitive conditions that can have a momentous impact on people's lives. In this paper, we investigate how and why people access existing HIV resources, and their experiences of using these resources through a survey with 197 respondents and an interview and think-aloud study with 28 participants. Our findings indicate that many HIV-related resources do not address the anxiety-provoking reasons for access, reinforce stigma and neglect to provide important information and emotional support. We finally discuss potential ways of addressing these issues in the current environment where more sexual health services are being delivered online.