The New Age of Astrology
Astrology is something people have turned to for thousands of years. In fact, many cultures around the world have attached significance to astronomical events and have used astrology to develop elaborate systems for predicting earthly affairs.
Even today, Gen Z is using the language of the stars to predict their relationships, careers and everyday life. How it works, is: there is a system of horoscopes that will explain your personality, predict your mood or give you insight on future events or emotions. The horoscopes are all based on the position of the sun, moon and other celestial objects from the time of your birth. You can search for your astrological sign and horoscope of the day here.
Many young people have started using astrology to evaluate their everyday life because they have been seeing results. History sophomore, Joey Sable, says that even though he didn’t take it seriously at first, after reading his birth chart he found that most of it rang true.
“At first I kind of took [astrology] as a joke, like ‘yeah, I’m such a Pisces,’ but then I started doing my research and evaluating some of my relationships and friendships I had in my life. Things were genuinely adding up,” said Sable.
Astrology used to be something only practiced by tarot card readers and mystics, but it has become more and more mainstream over the past few years. Sable even describes it as a fun way of socializing.
“It became more mainstream my senior year of high school. Everybody I knew – we were always joking around about astrology. It’s a fun way to have a conversation and it’s fun to talk about your signs with friends or new people when you introduce yourself,” said Sable.
Social media has been a major catalyst for the recent popularity in astrology. With more horoscope apps appearing, it is more focused on the social and rather than the media because they are all about connecting with your friends.
One of the more popular astrology apps, Costar was among the first mainstream apps focused on astrology. Sable says that even though sometimes the app can be pretty generic, it is still his primary go-to.
“Sometimes I’ll get my horoscope notification for the day and it’s scarily accurate and depicting everything that I’m feeling,” said Sable.
Despite Sable and many other people enjoy what Costar has to offer, there was recently some controversy surrounding the birth chart app. Apparently, it was designed by people who had been plagiarizing the work of actual astrologists and the designers had only studied astrology for a few months. Additionally, the app also posted some controversial memes during the Black Lives Matter protests in June that made a lot of users want the apple store to remove the app entirely.
If this deters you from Costar, there is an even newer astrology app that astrology fans everywhere are raving about: The Pattern. Biology junior, Tony Murillo, says that once he found The Pattern he has been a fan ever since.
“I saw it [The Pattern] on a Tik Tok, and I think it’s way more accurate than Costar for sure. The daily horoscopes are a lot more personalized and reflect my everyday life more than other apps,” said Murillo.
Tik Tok is also responsible for the rise in Gen Z’s interest in astrology. There are 9.8 billion views under #astrology on the platform along with thousands of videos dedicated to daily horoscopes and sign compatibility. Murillo says that it’s gaining a lot of traction, but he also sees the downside of it being so popular on Tik Tok.
“You know I think it’s a big movement that’s going on, but honestly I think it’s kind of bad in a way because it’s becoming more performative than real,” said Murillo.
The performative part of astrology Tik Tok most likely comes from users wanting a little bit of clout and baiting viewers in with the power of astrology, and as mentioned previously, it is growing in influence.
If you’re looking for love this season like Murillo, you can check out any of the apps to see which signs you’re most compatible with. You can also get on the waitlist for The Pattern’s dating app that will be coming out soon.
