Influencers rode out Hurricane Milton for the content. Why are we watching?

You may have noticed something peculiar if you were doomscrolling as Hurricane Milton devastated Florida this week: social media creators who stuck out the storm in unsafe evacuation zones, seemingly for the sake of creating content.

You may have noticed something peculiar if you were doomscrolling as Hurricane Milton devastated Florida this week: social media creators who stuck out the storm in unsafe evacuation zones, seemingly for the sake of creating content. Of course, people have always done crazy stuff on the internet. And some creators said they had additional reasons for not leaving, like concerns about gas shortages and traffic during evacuations. But the trend was a reminder of how social media can make dangerous situations worse. In the run-up to Milton’s landfall, we saw creators publicly flout official safety guidance alongside false claims about government weather manipulation and aid for hurricane victims. It felt uniquely dystopian to watch people put themselves in harm’s way — not to mention potentially endangering emergency first responders who might later have to help them — to post through a tragic, life-altering weather event fueled in part by climate change, for the views. At least 17 people have died because of the storm, more than 1,000 people had to be rescued by first responders and homes and businesses have been destroyed. For all the potential for social media to be a place to share valuable safety information and resources — and for people to offer help to others, as we saw when popular creators shared Amazon wishlists for victims of Hurricane Helene — the internet still often brings out the worst in us. “In some ways, it’s not surprising that we saw influencers and creators broadcasting the story given this kind of obligation to mine one’s life for content,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, associate professor in the department of communication at Cornell University.