As I discussed in a recent post, there is some evidence that social media use can harm your sense of well-being, though you can learn to use it more effectively. Given the influences of social media on people, it would be useful to understand the factors that drive social media usage.
A 2025 paper in Psychological Science by Kelton Minor, Estevan Moro, and Nick Obradovich looked at the influence of the weather on social media usage. These researchers explored over 3 billion posts on Facebook and Twitter by more than 300,000 individuals. They related the number of posts people made to the weather in their specific area (down to a 4-kilometer block). The analyses were interested in the effects of temperature and precipitation.
The researchers used warm days (15-20° C, or 59-68° F) with no precipitation as a baseline. Compared to these baselines, freezing days and very hot days increased social media posts. There were also more posts on days with precipitation than on dry days. There was also a significant interaction, so that very cold days with precipitation (leading to snow and ice) had a particularly large impact on social media usage leading to a 34 percent increase in Facebook posts and a 35 percent increase in posts on Twitter X.
The researchers analyzed the content of posts using keywords to explore whether this increase was due primarily to an increase in posts about the weather. While extreme weather did increase the number of posts that were about the weather, posts that were not about the weather also increased.
In addition, the researchers explored whether this change in social media use reflected an increase in the number of people posting or an increase in the number of posts within individuals on days with extreme weather. To do this analysis, they focused on changes in posting behavior within a random sample of 10,000 individuals from the data set. They found that even when you focus on particular individuals, there is a greater tendency to post on days with extreme weather compared to warm dry days.
One interesting analysis done by the researchers was to put the increase in social media due to extreme weather in context. They compared the increase in posts on very cold days with significant precipitation to key events in particular cities like the Boston Marathon in Boston, New Year’s Eve in New York City, and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. While all those events increased social media use in those cities, the effect was significantly smaller than the increase caused by days with wintry precipitation.
Essentially, social media use has become a fallback on days when it is more difficult to get outside and engage in other activities. While that may not be surprising, there are plenty of other alternatives people could engage in other than hopping on a social media platform. On a cold winter day, families could spend time together. Individuals could read a book, play music, or do art projects. Family and friends could call each other and have conversations. Yet, the easy availability of social media has turned people’s focus to their social media accounts instead.
This use of social media platforms is likely such a strong habit, that people will need to be mindful of it to change the behavior. When the weather is bad, think about putting your phone away and doing something else (or at least using the phone to engage directly with other people). Engaging with others is much more likely to lead to positive feelings and close relationships than scrolling and posting on social media.