Anger Pandemic – Discuss vs Disgrace

With the hustle and bustle of the holidays behind us, as well as some of my own challenges, I’m back in my blogging saddle. I do hope all of you had a pleasant and peaceful holiday. Prior to the holidays and through them, something has been on my mind. After enjoying a trip across the border into Niagara Falls and Toronto Canada to take in some of the festive Christmas markets and displays, it brought more light to what’s been bothering me. I intend to write something about that little journey as well, and can’t say enough nice things about the people we crossed paths with across the border.

For quite some time now, the mood and attitude of people here in the Tri-State, in particular NYC, has been angry and combative. Social graces are rarely seen or heard. When I do hear a thank you or have a door held, it feels like I’m experiencing something very special. While appreciating these things is nice, they should really just be part of normal behavior.

The real forum for the unhealthy conduct is on social media. Here, all bets are off, as well as the gloves for some. Perhaps it’s a bit due to a sense of anonymity, a perception people have when posting responses to things they see that they disagree. It’s fine to disagree and have varying opinions. We should be able to enjoy the freedom of expressing them. That being said, if you need to get around someone in line or within a crowd, you can politely say excuse me and move around them, or you can physically push them out of the way and knock them over, while also hurling some completely inappropriate personal insult at them. I am using this metaphor to express how I often see things on social media interactions.

The anger and vitriol has even worked its way into the weather world online. I recently had an experience with a group of weather interests on Meta that was both laughable and a bit disturbing. I’m not going to mention the group, as it’s not really the point nor worth it. I will say it is a private group, but not one that does any heavy vetting to get into. This meaning, any person just interested in weather, particularly snowstorms, can join in with no meteorological background or education.

All of what I’ve just described would be fine in a world where we weren’t so hypersensitive to the overload of information around us. Injecting a level of hype or fear seems to be the only way people attempt to get attention.

To get more specific about this site, they post things about potential snowstorms, often 10-14 days out. There are several long range weather computer models. Many times during the winter, one or two of these models is showing an east coast blizzard forecasted some two weeks into the future.

Some of these models put out actual accumulation forecasts as well. Often it will be showing anywhere from 15-30+ inches of snow. As anyone who lives in this area knows, that is a very rare beast of a storm. Nonetheless this will be posted on their site and discussed with child-like enthusiasm every time any computer model hints at something along these lines.

I like to call it wish-casting or the Santa Claus theory. Like sitting on Santa’s lap and asking for a brand new Porsche for Christmas and Santa laughs and says “ho ho ho I’ll see what I can do”. Then you go home and tell your friends your getting a Porsche for Christmas. Not likely….

So what’s my problem with that?

I’m a meteorologist. I have been for 40 years of my life. I’m a snow lover, and when younger often spent sleepless nights awaiting pending storms. However, as I am part of the communication industry for many of those years, I feel a responsibility. Weather forecasting is not factual. If it’s a prediction, then it hasn’t happened yet, so until that point, it is not a fact.

Study after study shows people watch local news most often to get there weather forecast. Obviously, in the day and age of apps etc., less and less people will turn to their TV, but rather to their phone for the forecast. In some cases they will tap into online or social media groups that talk weather. I could write another separate blog on my feelings and shortcomings of the plethora of weather apps, but I will save that for another day.

Now to my “real” point about this post. Last month, I saw another of the usual posts on this aforementioned weather site, showing possible 1-2 foot snowfall amounts for the east coast. The person who runs the group and his closest cronies were all chiming in with their usual premature overzealous excitement. Again, I’m a snow lover. I still have that feeling of excitement when a pending storm gets closer to being a reality. However, I’ve been through enough of these false alarms so far in advance, to keep grounded in reality and patiently wait.

The issue becomes, that this information they are putting out there, spreads like wildfire. They may think they are only talking amongst themselves in their weather bubble of snow lovers, but the fact is fringe folks without any great understanding of weather models and their shortcomings, take what they see, and run with it. It inevitably falls into the hands of digital folks at various TV stations. They then start writing little blurbs about this big snowstorm coming almost two weeks from today. This is then is ingested by the general public who spreads it to their mothers and family and friends. This leads to the lines at grocery stores and Home Depot buying rock salt and shovels.

Then as the days get closer, the computer models either don’t even show a storm, or take it 800 miles out to sea. A complete miss. Not a flake.

Even though I’ve never said anything publicly on air about that storm, as I am trying to responsibly wait for things to become a bit clearer, I inevitably hear the fallout. “What happened to that big storm we were supposed to get?” “You guys don’t know what you’re talking about!” “I wish I had your jobs…. I could be wrong all of the time and still keep it.” Also my favorite, “THEY said it was going to snow….what happened”.

My Dad, rest his soul, would always say to me, “yeah THEY said it going to get cold” or whatever the weather story would be. I would say Dad….”I’m one of the THEY” why don’t you ask me?

To put an end to this story, I went onto this not to be mentioned weather site. I saw another excited post about a possible storm. I posted “guys this is ridiculous so far out in advance to be putting out there. It’s fun to look at and talk about it, but we(TV/Broadcast meteorologists) get stuck picking up the pieces. Try and forecast responsibly.”

Wow. You would not believe how quickly they attacked. It started with a snarky reply or two and I could see they were protecting their turf. Then the first personal attack came. That’s when I led a reply with “Listen twerp(maybe I should have chosen another term).” I let them get to me, but tried to explain that after broadcasting the weather to the public on radio and TV for over 40 years, I think I have an understanding of how the public interprets what we say, as well as what they need and don’t need to know.

I thought it would end there. Boy was I wrong again. It degenerated into them calling me a washed up old guy on a TV station and network nobody watches or even knows it’s name. Well that’s some anger there. From that point forward, I was done with engaging. However, the personal insults kept coming. My favorite, it made me laugh, “Frankenstein called and he wants his face back”. That’s a good one. Despite the fact it was totally inappropriate and off base of the intention of my first post. A couple of folks did come to my defense and had a nice thing or two to say, but the majority angrily piled on.

My point? Are we kidding? Is this what we’ve become? All I encounter are angry, frustrated and just mean spirited people on much of social media. There are some good folks still out there, although we often can’t hear them over the shouting of negativity from the masses.

I had another issue pre-election from a post I made showing the stock market and inflation compared to post the Spanish flu pandemic. I asked a question that I kept hearing, but really felt was not necessarily relevant to the election. Are you better off or worse from 4 years ago? Please don’t read into this here by the way. Been there….done that. However, again, while it could have started a discussion of opinions and views in a mature manner, it degenerated into such an angry mess. Once again things turned personal and close to vile. I pulled the post and felt forced to block some people.

With all of this being said, I waver on just pulling the plug on all of my social media. It’s beginning to feel more and more toxic every day. Their are still some very positive things I see, but between the false information and vitriol, I’m not sure it’s a healthy choice.

I still like to use social media for my love of travel and food. For sharing pictures with friends and family we can’t get to see in person very often, but can share positive things in our lives.

I just wish we could stop this constant anger. Whether it’s on the surface openly or underlying, it really never helps or fixes anything. We can all believe what we want, at least I hope that’s still the case. If we don’t agree, then so be it. It might be frustrating. It might lead to even ending connections to things or people that the differences are too great to continue moving forward together. That’s a last resort, and hopefully more peaceful resolutions are possible.

Just stop perpetuating angry personal attacks. There’s a difference between “I don’t agree with what you think about taxes or our healthcare system” and ” you’re an ugly idiot and your mother wears army boots because of what you think about taxes and healthcare.” Get my point. Disagree with someone, but you don’t have to try to disgrace and personally hurt them. That’s not a victory.

Until next time……Sunshine Always