FORTUNE tellers once used crystal balls to predict the future.

But modern day soothsayers could use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to forecast events, researchers have claimed.

Facebook contains a treasure trove of information about its users- but can it predict the future?

A team from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington have collated the results of hundreds of separate studies and found that social media can  "make predictions about the future" – although these forecasts are not always accurate.

"Social media (SM) data provides a vast record of humanity's everyday thoughts, feelings, and actions at a resolution previously unimaginable," the academics wrote.

"Because user behaviour on SM is a reflection of events in the real world, researchers have realised they can use SM in order to forecast, making predictions about the future."