It’s no surprise how much you find out about a person when you are looking at their phone, but did you think to go take a look into their weather app? Naya Reyes talked to some people who’s weather apps reveal more about them than just their location.
[Retro NBC 7&4 Weather Forecast December 1996 Northern Michigan]
The apps we have on our phones can tell you a lot about someone. What games they like to play to kill time, what fast food places they like to order from, what their dating preferences are like. But the weather app can tell you a lot more about someone than you might think.
If we can only be in one place at once, then we should really only need to know the weather for where we are, right? Yet, many people have far more than just the place they live saved in their weather app, like Nashville native and sophomore at DePaul, Livia Mitchel.
Livia Mitchel: “Nashville and Chicago and then the college towns of all of my super close friends. Which is Waco, Texas, Columbia, South Carolina, Knoxville, Tennessee. I also have Orlando, Florida because that’s where my grandparents live and then I have Altana, Georgia because that’s where my other grandparents live. And then I probably had like a few random ones ”
For Mitchel, having so many locations in her weather app was, at first, just something fun for her to look at.
Livia Mitchel: “I would like to compare it. Just because we’re all so scattered and I fear Chicago is just always way worse than everybody else.”
What started out as a way her friends’ day might look like turned into a way to stay close with them.
Livia Mitchel: “Between me being in Chicago and one of my best friends being in Texas was like super polar opposites. It was kind of funny to hear about how it was so horrible for her at the beginning of the year because it was so brutally hot and she would step outside and it was like 115 degrees. The complete opposite side of the spectrum when I’m coming back to school and it’s negative 30 degree wind chill. So I do feel like it was an easy thing to talk about because it’s hard for people to understand your life and your city.”
With her grandparents, monitoring the weather of another place is a habit that both Mitchel and them take part in.
Livia Mitchel: “They’ll see on the weather something serious happening in Chicago, so it has been something very easy to talk about them with because sometimes there is just an awkwardness with talking to grandparents because of the age gap.
Northwestern senior Joel Reyes
Joel Reyes: “I currently have my location, Evanston, my hometown, Houston, the greater metropolitan area that I’m from, the Woodlands and the adjacent neighborhood near Spring.”
Finds himself in a similar situation.
Joel Reyes: “Cauayan City, that’s the city that I was born in and most of my family resides in.”
That’s in the Philippines. Reyes moved to Spring, Texas when he was three years old.
Joel Reyes: “While I don’t talk to my relatives there on a day to day basis, it is a good opportunity to see how things are. Cauayan city is just now getting out of the rainy season. I know for us, in comparison, in the United States, we’re still getting through winter. It’s cool to be able to see that contrast.”
Like Reyes, Mitchel has loved ones scattered throughout the world. Having their locations in her weather app allows her to stay close to them wherever they might go.
Livia Mitchel: “A lot of my friends are aboard this semester, and so I find myself frequently checking what the weather looks like in their cities so maybe I’ll just add them so it’s on my app easier.”
For WNUR News, Naya Reyes.
