The impact of social media on storm chasing

[Peter MacDonald]

A few months after I nuked my Twitter account Elon made the site closed access. I was able to get away with using a third party data scrapper (Nitter) to view tweets without an account, but in the last couple months API changes have killed most of the instances. Forcing users to sign up just to view vital information is such a trashy business model, but I am not really surprised. What's even worse is that Elon has recently suggested pay walling content, making new users pay up $1/per year just to post tweets. This is supposed to get rid of bot accounts, but we know it's not going to do anything except discourage new accounts from joining.

I think it's also worth discussing the implications of posting on Twitter, or any big tech platform. When you give them any information, whether this be text, photos, or videos, you no longer own it. When Twitter inevitably closes, all your tweets will be "gone", along with all the information they have collected from you. The same could be said for any website, but at least with StormTrack you know that it's a small community, everyone has a common goal, and your data is less likely to be harvested by nefarious actors provided it's properly encrypted. And like many have you said, the quality of discussion here far exceeds anything you would see on wxTwitter.

 

[Jason N]

That’s one thing I’d like to see more of here on ST - post-mortems… Not saying we never see them, but they are not frequent. Plenty of pre-event forecasting, but not a lot of analysis on why something happened the way it did. Understanding why something did NOT happen is a huge learning opportunity. I’ve often wished the SPC had a post-mortem version of the convective outlook, explaining what did or didn’t happen and why.

This is why I like Convective Chronicles. It would be nice to see some version of that here.

 

[Dave C]

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 ().

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.

 

[Drew Terril]

There may indeed be a bit of a drop in people chasing setups outside their local area. Part of that may be the time factor as Jeff alluded to. That’s seems to be a factor in fewer people volunteering for anything nowadays. It’s a rare volunteer fire department that’s fully staffed now.

We've noticed a similar drop in people volunteering in various organizations that I'm involved with (American Legion, Marine Corps League, VFW, church, etc). To take my local American Legion post as an example, we have just shy of 300 members who are up to date on dues. However, when we put on our monthly chicken dinner, it's the same 4 or 5 of us that are volunteering our time to actually prepare the food, and I can't be there during harvest, since I'm out in the fields. In addition to that, other than yesterday's meeting, I'm the only regular member (non officer) who shows up to the monthly meeting regularly. Even the officer posts have basically been rotating for several years now.

I certainly get that life gets in the way; when I was OTR, it was next to impossible for me to be involved with anything outside of work. Before that, I was generally on either second or third shift, which similarly limited my ability to volunteer. But when it comes to social media, I wonder if it's just gotten so easy to sit there and scroll that it's burned that desire to volunteer or to chase anything more than just local stuff. I know it's certainly affected the content that I've posted online, just knowing that nothing I do will cut through the haze because I'm not a "known commodity." I have video going back to 2015 that nobody other than myself has seen, and plenty of photos in the same category. I do still get out and chase when time and money allows, but my desire to share any kind of content has dwindled as SM keeps snowballing and algorithms get worse. Sadly, while I have a YouTube channel (wanted to lock up the name I wanted for it), I still have yet to post anything to it.

I came of age when SM was in its infancy, and long form forums were still the place to be for deep dives into whatever topic you were wanting to learn about. I was active on several. Most of those, unfortunately, are long gone, and with it an incredible repository of information that SM will never be able to duplicate.

 

[Dan Robinson]

It seems there is a near-universal loathing or at least discontentment with social media along with an awareness of its devastating effects, but like an addiction, just quitting it and moving to something else is just eluding us all. Dave's post summed that up well, it is precisely engineered to do just that.

I've also seen some Yogi Berra-esque reasoning for not participating on ST ("I don't post/read ST because no one is there"). That could change overnight if everyone saying that came back. I wish I had the answer to what the trigger would need to be to get a person to drop social media completely (that includes me also). The person that figures that out will be worthy of a Nobel prize.

For me, the *only* reason I stay on Twitter/X is that it has decent utility in monitoring ongoing weather events:

- You can see what a storm you're not on looks like when others post about it, including when it produces something of note (tornado, large hail, structure, etc). If someone you follow doesn't post about it, you can do a hashtag or keyword search to find others. That's come into play for my in-chase decision making more than a few times.
- Most NWS WFOs monitor their Twitter accounts, so it is a viable way make reports (with pictures included) when you @ them and include the state wx hastag. And with local media monitoring the state WX hashtags, they see those reports in real time.

That's really it for me. Find a way to replace those on ST or somewhere else non-social-media related, and I'd close my Twitter account in a heartbeat. Unfortunately those are things Twitter/X does really well and there *is* significant value in it, as long as you force the chronological timeline (make sure Following vs For You is selected).

Could Stormtrack replace some of that realtime-info usefulness? Maybe! The EVENT threads definitely could.

 

[Blake Naftel]

Perhaps the creation of a Stormtrack app that could serve as a direct liaison to National Weather Service forecast offices, specifically for contributing vetted, real-time reports + photos and offer a direct connection to the mainframe Stormtrack website for summaries and post-mortem surveys, etc could be developed? This would be similar to the how Spotter Network was gradually adopted and integrated into the NWS warning process almost two decades ago, later complimented in some regards by social media reports sent via Twitter/X. As almost everyone presently has a smart phone, tablet and wifi connection while storm observing, a ST user designed and supported app could theoretically allow individuals whom have no inclination in remaining or participating on "social" media for many of the reasons previously noted, to step away from Twitter/X, etc, and gravitate towards a public service app that would contribute visual verification reports to specific CWA NWSFO's. It could be akin to/compliment mPING, and add a multimedia aspect. This would also bypass the typical addictive mainframe that all social media apps thrive on [likes, dislikes, followers, etc] and serve a primary purpose in providing short-form, additional information and reports for meteorologists in the public or private sectors to utilize in the public warning process. Consider it as a step up from the clunky NWS chat. If this has been previously discussed or if such an app already exists, please pardon my ignorance, as this near-decade long dormant account was just re-established. Thank you, Jeff!

As for "social" media, I never found it all that social, but did enjoy the ability to send real-time reports to specific NWS offices. Like Dan noted in his prior post, that is really the only thing I "miss" about Twitter, as I departed and deleted all the main SM apps except YouTube, which I still keep active primarily as a historical video archive. For real-time reports, I'm limited to direct phone calls to NWSFO's, 911, reports via a 2 meter radio or an after-the-fact e-mail to the WCM or MIC.

Will further add, it's wonderful Stormtrack continues to persevere and that forum-style discussions are still a thing, regardless of a push away from this style of platform or communications. Life, career, projects, setbacks and other family-related priorities took precedence over the years. Social media was always a distraction, even when it was part of a job. Yet as a long-form writer by preference, this style of discussion is great to read and glad there remains a healthy dialogue for both established contributors and younger voices.

 

[JamesCaruso]

It seems there is a near-universal loathing or at least discontentment with social media along with an awareness of its devastating effects, but like an addiction, just quitting it and moving to something else is just eluding us all. Dave's post summed that up well, it is precisely engineered to do just that.

I've also seen some Yogi Berra-esque reasoning for not participating on ST ("I don't post/read ST because no one is there"). That could change overnight if everyone saying that came back. I wish I had the answer to what the trigger would need to be to get a person to drop social media completely (that includes me also). The person that figures that out will be worthy of a Nobel prize.

Cal Newport has some good advice in “Digital Minimalism”, if only the addicted would read it: Get off SM, fill your life with other things that interest you (OK, head start there - severe weather and storm chasing!) and then use technology not for its own sake (i.e. SM scrolling to kill time or fill a void in your life) but only to the extent it supports your interests. Which should lead them to ST (and other niche forums) if they really take time to discern the best platform to indulge their interests.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Another thing that affects me (and I'm sure it does others) is the idea that being on social media is necessary to be included in society in some way. Social media is engaged in a long-term coup campaign against the web, and it appears they're winning. If I'm not on social media, will I just be standing in the wilderness talking to myself if I stay on the web?

My web site's (Storm Highway) traffic has been on a steady decline for the past 8 years. I peaked at 8,000 to 10,000 pageviews a day during spring and summer in 2015 and 2016. I'm down to 100 to 300 pageviews a day now. The most precipitous drop I saw was when I went from an average of 2,000 to 3,000 pageviews a day during storm season in 2021 to less than 800 during spring/summer of 2022. I'd imagine Stormtrack may be seeing the same.

One big cause of this is something called "E.A.T" (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) that Google search implemented. It is basically their way of fighting "misinformation" by making the only results you get on any subject to be either government sites or mainstream media sites. I used to get tons of organic search traffic for lightning science topics and big storm chase days. Now those same keywords return nothing but national and local media site pages (TV stations, newspapers, etc) and the National Weather Service.

You can see this yourself right now by doing a search for the Greensburg tornado. Up until a couple of years ago, my chase log for that day used to be the first or second result for that keyphrase. Now my Greensburg page doesn't even appear anywhere until the third or fourth page of results, sometimes not at all! It's now all local TV and newspaper stories along with a couple of NWS pages on Greensburg. Another good example was when I caught the Gateway Arch being struck by lightning on a DSLR still last summer. The top Google search result for that event was a small-market radio station's web site article *talking about my photo* while my own web page on the event wasn't even on the first page of results!

Another possible cause of my drop could be "retaliation" by infringers (in the form of negative SEO tactics) for the escalation of copyright enforcement actions I've undertaken since 2020. I've had web development customers who suffered from negative SEO, either from competitors or from themselves hiring shady SEO companies who were (unbeknownst to them) using black hat tactics like link farming and comment spamming. We could never fix those (with disavowing bad links and other tactics), the sites were just poisoned beyond repair. The only solution was to build a new site that would have to slowly rebuild its ranking from scratch.

But the biggest factor I see in my site's drop-off of traffic is the total capture of the internet and society by social media. People's online habits have been slowly groomed to be on-platform to the point that few are even *using* the web any longer. I think that's the most likely driver of my site's slow decline. You see the results of this grooming on Reddit all the time for example. People don't go searching for things, they just lazily ask questions expecting someone to spoon-feed them an answer. Even though the same question is asked 10 times a day in the same subreddit. And of course, no one knows who is giving them the answer. It could be anybody. A real person with knowledge on the subject, a complete know-nothing, a corporate shill, a paid bot farm, a government entity (we know all of those things exist and are active, but there's no way to reliably spot them).

My point being, we're fighting against a juggernaut of tech giants that may mean, for many of us who pull the plug on social media, the effective banishment from any presence in society (at least online). I suppose then one must accept that outcome permanently if the masses never come to the same epiphany.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

My point being, we're fighting against a juggernaut of tech giants that may mean, for many of us who pull the plug on social media, the effective banishment from any presence in society (at least online). I suppose then one must accept that outcome permanently if the masses never come to the same epiphany.

I don't know that this is such a bad thing. If you aren't on SM (like I am these days) you don't carry the weight of the world on your shoulders with bad news being delivered to your phone every 2 minutes or seeing the same meme's over and over and over or being barraged with manipulated photos/posts that are obviously made to get a reaction, not to mention the deluge of non-stop ads.

Chasing-wise, you aren't influenced by other's thoughts or posts on a whim about how an event will play out or whether they're going out or staying home. You aren't sad if someone else gets a better photo or video or caught a tornado that you didn't get to see. Basically, no one else inadvertently ruins your chase for you by letting FOMO or envy seep in. These are very real things that affect everyone regardless of stature or experience.

The biggest part of letting go of SM is coming to the realization that it's ok to be a nobody (which reminds me of Dan's "Nobody Cares" post from years ago). It's ok for people to not know that you're a chaser, or who you are when you show up at a convenience store full of people who are chasing. It's ok to make your own forecast and not share them, or to be out chasing and nobody online even knows you went. It's ok to just enjoy chasing on your own terms, which is why I'm here instead of any SM platforms. This is a huge thing in a hobby full of egos, but it's one that I've accepted which has set me free and I have to say it's pretty liberating.

 

[Mark Gressman Jr]

Agreed 100% Sean! I know there a people who use social media to help advance what they're trying to do, but if you can cut it away, it definitely is a massive change in perspective for the better. I don't even follow the news anymore! I have various apps to keep me up to speed with the things that enrich my life... weather, earthquakes, motorsports, skydiving/B.A.S.E. & history... if something is really important outside that scope, I'll hear about it eventually. There's just too much to keep up with, and the older I get, the less I want to have to keep up with it all. I just want to do my own thing, for my own enjoyment, and if others wanna be a part of that, they'll make the time... and that goes both ways. That's to say nothing of the manipulation that takes place by the algorithms, feeding you what the powers that be, want you to see and influence your decisions.

For those of you trying to make something for yourself in the landscape that is SM, I wish you the best of luck.... but remember, it's only as crazy as you let it be. And while some people can thrive in that environment, for me, simplicity is part of the key to happiness. Life is too short to waste it on negativity.

 

[Jason N]

Perhaps the creation of a Stormtrack app that could serve as a direct liaison to National Weather Service forecast offices, specifically for contributing vetted, real-time reports + photos and offer a direct connection to the mainframe Stormtrack website for summaries and post-mortem surveys, etc could be developed?

100% Agree - something a kin to Mping and Spotter network combined into an "S-Track" App , that's just my 2 cents

Could Stormtrack replace some of that realtime-info usefulness? Maybe! The EVENT threads definitely could.

turn it into an App or ST page that is more graphic near realtime google or other maps that we can post location information, overlay weathe analysis and radar, insert pictures, kind of like how the NWS does with their story boards. This could then turn into a post mortem to line up with previous forecasts, at the time analysis, and explanations from chasers on what was good or bad about their location choice... adding context.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Sorry to mention Cal Newport yet again, but aside from his Digital Minimalism book he has a podcast called Deep Questions that is focused on “living and working deeply.” He is very anti-SM and believes it is a barrier to living a “deep life.” He wouldn’t say it has *no* place in a deep life, but that it should be used only intentionally, for specific purposes as needed - he uses examples like checking out a Facebook page for a group you belong to, if that is the primary way to find out about the group’s events. Or being an artist and following certain other artists on Instagram for inspiration. But SM as the default mode to fill up free time he is very much against. I see echoes of Newport’s thinking in the immediately preceding posts by Sean and Mark.

And Mark also reminds me of what another favorite author, Nassim Taleb, says about the news - don’t bother with it, if there’s anything you really need to know you’ll hear about it at the water cooler!

 

[Ben Holcomb]

If I'm not on social media, will I just be standing in the wilderness talking to myself if I stay on the web?

As someone whos been completely off social media for something like 3-4 years now, I ask "Who the F cares?" to that. Seriously. I can't force feed my content to the masses. I can only post it and hope I don't get dinged in search results for not having socials or not conforming to the correct ideology or watching the wrong youtube videos or something.

One big cause of this is something called "E.A.T" (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) that Google search implemented. It is basically their way of fighting "misinformation" by making the only results you get on any subject to be either government sites or mainstream media sites. I used to get tons of organic search traffic for lightning science topics and big storm chase days. Now those same keywords return nothing but national and local media site pages (TV stations, newspapers, etc) and the National Weather Service.

This would explain the results I am seeing. I have been trying to learn as much about SEO as I can with my site and have noticed it's hard to be heard in a patch of mainstream news stories. They're also starting to ding people for not using "inclusive language". Better not talk about Master/Slave if you're writing a help article for a MegaRAID controller. Meanwhile, these same dickheads at alphabet were the ones firing people this week who dared to speak out against israel for "politics". lol. Can't make this stuff up. I don't think anyone on this forum hates Google enough.

I am not trying to make money off my content, so perhaps that is the main difference here with me. I am just trying to post it in a public place and attract those who care. I've also not posted to youtube in almost 2 years.

My life has been a lot better without any social media. Sure, I find myself not interacting with nearly the volume of people I used to and opportunities don't come up nearly as much as they used to, but I don't sit there and mindlessly scroll for hours "Doomscrolling". I do things like write detailed chase logs instead of sitting down and watching social media feeds or a television.

 

[Dave C]

Sorry to mention Cal Newport yet again, but aside from his Digital Minimalism book he has a podcast called Deep Questions that is focused on “living and working deeply.” He is very anti-SM and believes it is a barrier to living a “deep life.” He wouldn’t say it has *no* place in a deep life, but that it should be used only intentionally, for specific purposes as needed - he uses examples like checking out a Facebook page for a group you belong to, if that is the primary way to find out about the group’s events. Or being an artist and following certain other artists on Instagram for inspiration. But SM as the default mode to fill up free time he is very much against. I see echoes of Newport’s thinking in the immediately preceding posts by Sean and Mark.

And Mark also reminds me of what another favorite author, Nassim Taleb, says about the news - don’t bother with it, if there’s anything you really need to know you’ll hear about it at the water cooler!

I'm glad you shared this, James, I want to check that out. I have been trying to avoid mainstream news and social media at all costs and reduce aimless scrolling, only using FB and Insta for photography sharing or keeping touch with acquaintances, and recently added a Youtube channel for timelapse and longer form video sharing. I cannot find a way to get my art to be seen by anyone without using those platforms unfortunately, but any perspectives on intentional use of these platforms that keeps them useful to me instead of the other way around is welcome.

 

[Jeff Duda]

FOMO, as others have mentioned, is definitely a major factor. But, as Ben also points out, why do people care if they miss something going on thousands of miles away in a culture they have no involvement in? In that sense, social media kind of acts like a 24-hour news TV station in that you can always follow what's happening in almost any culture outside your immediate environment. But so what? Again, how much of that information being posted and displayed is relevant or meaningful to your own life?

Many have adequately put it: "Twitter is not real life." No, it isn't. No social media site is. Life is lived IRL, and when you spend time on social media, you're spending it outside of RL. The most meaningful part of your life is that which occurs outside of social media. That mostly includes your interpersonal relationships, but also the IRL experiences you have (say, from traveling to a new place to see the sights or try something new). You can't do any of that on social media. I'm surprised so many people are unable to see that or are still able to resist the urge to "turn on their favorite social-media-fed TV channel" to watch what's going on.

Some of the authors I mentioned in a previous post also point to studies showing that one of the most significant factors affecting longevity is the quantity and quality of interpersonal relationships people have. Regardless of the added stress or strife that may come from having a life-term partner, married people/people in long-term relationships statistically significantly outlive those who remain unmarried or without strong social connections, especially into their elderly years. The "friends" you have on social media cannot, and do not, replace IRL relationships.

I definitely have felt a bit of the "not a part of society" since I left Twitter at the end of last year. I did join Bluesky, but there hasn't been sufficient buy-in from others for that to replace Twitter yet, despite Bluesky being a near-replica of Twitter. But I have told myself I'm taking a stand on how I want to manage my personal life in regards to social media, and god damnit, I'm going to stick to my guns and retain my minimal presence on social media sites. (for the record, Bluesky is the only at-least-semi-major SM site I am active on these days. I have a LinkedIn account, but I almost never visit it. I am not on Twitter/X, FB, Instagram, Threads, or the like. I do have a Mastodon account on wx.social, but that place died out)