Fall is right around the corner, and the weather is beginning to change. Scientists have all but confirmed that weather impacts mood, and as the days get shorter and the nights colder, people may find themselves in worse emotional states. Many people will turn to social media to cope with this change, but how does this impact the online climate?
Research has revealed that during bad weather, social media posting and engagement increase. Sunny days tend to have fewer online interactions while cloudy days increase social media presence by 42%. If it is raining, online interaction increases by 90%.
However, the increase comes as no surprise. Many people use social media as a way to escape the negative aspects of their daily lives, even for things as small as bad weather. However, the way people are posting is shocking.
When the weather is bad, social media posts tend to be more negative. The negativity occurs during rain, snow or any weather that may force people to seek shelter inside. Heatwaves increase the rate of negative posting more than losing an hour of sleep during daylight savings time.
Even on social media sites, such as Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, where posts can come from across the world, moods consistently shift according to the weather. If a heatwave is enveloping the United States, but France is having a sunny day, the French are more likely to be posting positively.
Studies from the University of California on Facebook, a site where connections tend to stay geographically local, found that one negative weather update from an individual led to a 1.29% increase in negative posts by that individual’s friends. Positive updates had a reverse impact.
Athens is currently in an extreme drought, causing the grass to turn brown and leaves to fall from trees. Months of extreme heat this summer left Court Street quiet for days at a time. Students may have noticed they spent more time inside, and consequently on social media to beat the heat. Regardless of the season, there is no indication warmer days are going away.
Earth is currently on a 15-month record-setting streak for the hottest months on record. Starting in June 2023, this past year has been the hottest in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA)175-year climate history. Increasing temperatures increase the frequency of natural disasters, including drought, wildfires, heatwaves and extreme rainfall.
Due to the shifting weather trends caused by climate change, extreme weather events are rapidly increasing in occurrence. Torrential rainfall and excruciating heat waves will become more frequent and, as a result, social media will likely become more negative.
Yet, the news about social media is not all bad when it comes to extreme weather. Online engagement is a powerful tool that can be used to spread awareness and fight back against the misinformation around climate change.
“Addressing the current climate crisis requires behavioral change, and social media may potentially be a powerful tool to help influence such change,” co-authors Bryan Bollinger, Kenneth T. Gillingham and Kelley Gullo Wight wrote in their paper, “Making Prosocial Social: The Effectiveness of Social Proof for Energy Conservation Using Social Media.”
Spending time online during bad weather is possibly the most common way to pass the time. However, it does not have to be spent scrolling through negative posts. By knowing how the natural world impacts social media, users can become more aware of the content they see and engage with.
