I'm quite late to this thread but enjoyed all the good points and discussions made in it. I have a few long general comments on social media, and will relate directly to the effect of social media on storm chasing after:
In pure concept, social media can be engaging and help establish community, while being an efficient exchange of information in certain abbreviated ways. However, due to the truncated / short attention span expectation of presentation on almost all platforms (long form text/video, etc. does not do well in feed algorithms). Without nuance, authenticity and accuracy of many social media posts is lacking.
No social media platform is altruistic with the intent of positive communication and societal health, even if a few founders or employees of the platform feel that way. No, the real controlling interests that build and run these networks want money over all, and influence and control after that. They want your data, ad revenue, and nothing else. You are a commodity and they are insatiable. Algorithms curate and select for maximum engagement, max drama, and to match the beliefs of the platform runners. Social media is the farthest thing from an open or reliable forum.
Sadly, many people make life decisions, establish their values and beliefs, and are endlessly entertained at that shallow level of agenda driven information. Documentaries like the Social Dilemma take a quick look at how the designers of these platforms had an idealistic concept, grew platforms almost mindlessly with naivete and hunger for money or influence, and now most agree they created a monster in their image. To a person, everyone interviewed in that doc said their own kids were banned from using what they helped create. They studied how to manipulate the masses with colors, algorithms, etc. to feed the human dopamine response (instant gratification and shallow thought). A healthy anything will feed Serotonin (love, contentment, deep lasting things), and social media can not do that at all.
The fact that influencers exist, groups act like high school cliques, people ridicule each other anonymously, people act more often out of self interest on social media is disturbing. The platforms are set up to bring out the worst in people. This replaces opportunity for really knowing ourselves and each other and our universe. Social media only moderates itself if the bottom line or personal agenda is challenged- they could care less about the users and in fact have demonstrated outright disdain for us. I think it is really important when posting to social media to self moderate and set aside habit/dopamine driven agendas as much as humanly possible and never to regard the audience as a commodity.
Put the screen in front of the face and switch off the mind.
Now to wrap all those general thoughts on social media to how it appears to me to be affecting storm chasing:
Basic community can be established around weather, but social media does not often form lasting anything in my experience. Any real friendships or detailed discussions are generally off the platform. So for chasing and weather, only the initial connections are useful, if ever, from social media.
Regarding info exchange, social media is usually only good for snippets, basic awareness, catching the 'buzz' of interesting things or upcoming events, etc. It's a like looking at models 7-10 days out- you might get a general idea, but the details shown are all over the place and useless. Usually, better depth and more accurate info is linked to off platform from any social media.
Because of the dopamine response system built into everything these days: "I want that now", "look at that amazing person/life/place", "like" or "dislike", "I'm missing out", etc, people are driven to either judge or possess what they see others doing. Social media directly drives uneducated or disingenuous people out to chase for curiosity or some kind of personal gain instead of just a bunch of weather lovers who probably would chase without any prompting. Even if all were perfect chasers, social media and GPS dots drive masses to the same location anyway which is a logistical and experience nightmare for most. Many chasers use social media for positioning (
![Face vomiting :face_vomiting: 🤮](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f92e.png)
).
Sometimes the social media connection intent is good, like wanting to share your chase experience with others, but in reality often produces uncontrollable effects or taints the purity of the endeavor. Much like natural places being ruined by mobs when people insist on location tagging and showing their "glamorous lives", influenceable minds will flock there, destroying the place.
Bad behavior gets ratings on social media: zero meter, bad drivers, obnoxious behavior, attentions seeking. This brings negativity to the pursuit of weather. For some people, that is the main point: to act crazy where no one can stop you, to get attention, to be obnoxious or take risks to test their invincibility for adrenaline. I see this as directly driven by the mind bend that social media put on society. There has always been bad behavior, but it was never given a loud priority voice over the voice of reason like we have now.
Forums are different, like early chat rooms, in that they are moderated and slow moving enough for people to think. They are not generally algorithm driven by agenda or popularity. Forums allow nuance, discourse, deep thought, and lasting views to be formed, changed, etc. I think the mentions in this thread of wanting to encourage chasers to communicate in other places than social media could do a lot for the community to build deeper connections, encourage better behavior, etc. I am not sure social media can be saved for chasing or any other purpose. It is what it is: a network provided "for free" by money and influence driven overlords that encourages short attention span thinking, hype, drama, and popularity contests.
EDITED to be
slightly less long winded. I have a real problem.
![Grinning face with smiling eyes :smile: 😄](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f604.png)