Last weekend, Jupiter finished up its retrograde period (May 14th 2020-September 12th 2020) and stationed direct in Capricorn. Jupiter will stay here in Capricorn until December 19th 2020 then it enters the sign of Aquarius.

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes

For this Jupiter in Capricorn transit, I’ve decided to focus on the topic of expanding our responsibilities with technology.

I was limiting my time on social media as much as possible this past week and it’s honestly been liberating this time around! I announce that I’m going on a social media detox basically every other day, but I always end up detoxing for a day or two, then I catch myself endlessly scrolling again. This detox has actually been liberating because I watched the new Netflix movie called The Social Dilemma. If you haven’t seen it, stop what you’re doing and watch it! Seriously, even if you have to stop reading my blog. This movie is so important! If you can’t stop what you’re doing and watch, don’t worry. I’ll give you a brief overview in this article.

It’s been apparent that social media has negative effects on us. But the visualization’s this documentary provides along with their great website packed full of solutions and transparency, really emphasizes the importance of taking personal responsibility for the ways we use social media. I literally watched this movie, cleared some apps from my phone, updated some privacy settings, and had ZERO desire to get back on social media. Even now as I type this blog post, I struggle because I know that social media is essential for bloggers; yet, I’m scared of what it’s doing to our mental health. Emmy of the Lou is where I open up about mental health and discuss healing through astrology. How hypocritical of me to talk about healing, then get on social media and play the manipulative algorithm game just to get people to read this.

What is The Social Dilemma?

The Social Dilemma, along with being a Netflix movie, is actually a series of dilemma’s our societies (all over the world) face when it comes to the algorithms behind social media and the internet in general.

My boyfriend is super into cyber security and as I was watching this movie and freaking out about some of the concepts they mentioned, he was like “Emmy, I told you about all this stuff”, I’m like “well I guess I needed a visual explanation because I didn’t realize it was this bad.” Even the part in the movie where they mention search engines having virtual avatars built for each and every one of us that monitor our search history, locations, personality, and even our emotions; then influences our searches based on those factors; my boyfriend was like – “yeah the Voodoo Doll!” Then the movie mentioned how these avatars are like Voodoo Doll’s! I’m like, “WHAT?!” In that moment, I knew I had to learn more about this mass manipulation. My boyfriend is a very technical security, analytical type and has tried explaining this stuff to me on numerous occasions. I am more of a psychological, philosophical, thinking-feeling type. This Netflix movie gives you both views in a very structured and easy to understand way.

How can we apply The Social Dilemma to this Jupiter Direct in Capricorn transit?

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Jupiter in Capricorn Keywords

Jupiter is the planet of Expansion, Growth, and Understanding.

Capricorn is the sign of Responsibility, Public Image and Structure.

Jupiter direct just means the planet has ended its retrograde period and is moving in a forward motion again. While Jupiter was retrograde in Capricorn, we saw some major re-evaluation happen in society regarding these keyword themes.

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Expansion and Responsibility

The Mental Health Dilemma-

• Have you ever posted something and deleted it shortly after because it didn’t receive very many (or any) likes? I have.
• Have you ever posted something and checked your phone every 5 minutes for the next few hours to see if anyone’s commented or liked it yet? I have.
• Have you ever made a mean comment online, regretted it, and knew you couldn’t take it back? I have.

The Social Mental Health Dilemma is a crisis. My generation was one of the first to experience having social media in middle school. The Pluto in Sagittarius Generation (Gen-Z) dealt with this more so than my generation, but the end of the Pluto in Scorpio’s (Millennials) did have MySpace in middle school. Facebook and the like button didn’t come til later (I believe I was in high school when that all came out).

Middle school is a hard time in life. Probably the hardest if you ask me! I was a nightmare monster human at that age. Throughout my early childhood I was picked on for being too sensitive. I cried a lot and was really shy. At some point in my childhood journey, I discovered that people actually listened to me and laughed when I made jokes about other people. This took the heat off of me and put it onto someone else. So as a typical, self hating, middle school girl, I talked shit on anyone and everyone. Whatever made my “friends” laugh, I went for.

I remember making a comment on my Myspace page about a kid being overweight. I didn’t specifically name the kid, but from my initial comment and my friends comments on the post, it was clear who the statement was about. The kid must have told their mom about the comment because she printed it out and brought it to my moms attention as well as the schools. Even though it was something I posted at home on my computer, it was brought to the schools attention because it was 100% bullying on my part. I don’t remember exactly what my punishment was, maybe just a detention, but I remember feeling completely ashamed. I didn’t want this kid to see this horrible comment. I didn’t want to hurt their feelings; I guess I just wanted to look cool in front of my friends. I wasn’t thinking about how hurtful my words could be.

And when we express hurtful words online, those hurtful words are there for life.

The rest of the story is a blur for me. I tried to block this from my memory and hated myself so much, for so many years. I knew that I was a bully and I could never take back the awful words I said. I’m not even sure I ever truly apologized to the kid. I’ve thought about tracking them down and apologizing but I don’t feel like I have the strength. I am still so ashamed of myself. I am a bully who doesn’t deserve forgiveness or even simply to have this weight lifted off my shoulders by apologizing. Nearly 12 years have gone by since this incident and I still suffer in ways I can’t consciously describe.

This is not social media’s fault. This is a typical bully cycle that kids experience and learn from, but social media has made the pains of bullying more prominent and more psychologically damaging. Once it’s put on the internet, it’s there forever. The words can’t be erased. The hurt can’t be removed. It’s out there for everyone to access at any time. I think that’s something we all truly struggle to grasp. That even though a snap chat photo disappears in seconds, it’s not private. Nothing we do online is private. There are no truly private conversations, but if they call it a “private message”, we dump our heart and souls into it because it’s more convenient than a phone call.

Mental health issues are at an all time high, and while there are many layers to this dilemma, we have to do the best we can to solve this. One solution I see is regulating each of our family’s usage. Middle Schoolers do not need social media access. This is stated in the Netflix movie as well, but I could not agree more. Navigating life as a middle schooler is hard enough. Why add more life altering complications and bullying opportunities?

Social media is something that we all need to use responsibly. There is no class in school that teaches us how to use it responsibly. Although social media has taken over our lives, it is still such a new concept for all of us. Maybe there should be a class for young adults and using social media responsibly…light bulb! For now, we all have to take accountability for the information we put out online. We have to take accountability for our own mental health as well as the mental health of others. Before posting a mean/judgmental comment, stop and think about it for a minute. Is this comment going to actually help someone? Or is it going to fuck them up mentally? Expand your responsibilities online. Be an adult and use the Internet respectfully.

Growth and Public Image

The Misinformation Dilemma-

• How do you feel when you get on social media these days?
• Do you feel an overwhelming negative energy that you can’t quite explain?
• Do you feel like you have to stay online regardless of the negativity in an effort to stay informed?
• What if I told you, half the shit you’re reading is just false news designed to get an emotional reaction out of you?

“Misinformation travel 6 times faster than real news on Twitter” let that sink in for a moment… in the age of social media, we do what we can to get more likes, comments, and followers. Even if that means sprucing up the post with an inaccurate headline to grab the readers attention. Even if that means jazzing up the story with some facts you aren’t 100% sure of, but you know people will like. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc are all advertising company’s. They use their algorithms to share things they think you would like and ultimately buy. The ads and articles I see streaming down my newsfeed are different from the ads and articles that you see.

The Social Dilemma movie even mentions conspiracy theories and how if you click on an article that mentions conspiracy theories, you will get more conspiracy theories in your feed. With this happening, how the hell are you going to know what’s actually true anymore?

Now I know this dilemma gets pretty intense and Matrix like, but it’s important to be aware of. The reality’s we all experience when we’re online are different from each other. My reality is different from my boyfriends reality, is different from my friends, is different from that neighbor with the giant Vote for Trump sign in his front yard, or the neighbor with the Dump Trump sign in his yard.

This stat really hit me because I had a conversation with someone recently about de-funding the police. The person I was talking to said they can’t stand what Black Lives Matter is saying and that abolishing police is just ignorant. I have been seeing information online that mentions “de-funding the police” so we can shift the funding to teachers and mental health professionals. This way we can get to the root of the crime issues. The person I was talking to said they didn’t hear that part of it. They just thought de-fund the police meant abolish them completely. While there are people out there saying to abolish police, that is not how everyone saying “de-fund the police” feels.

Having this conversation made me very scared for everyone in society right now. We are spreading around false information and making assumptions about each other in order to get likes and grow our followings. And we don’t even know it!! All of this is happening so companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc, can keep bringing in money and keep putting out advertisements. They won’t stop and focus on spreading truth and reality, because they can’t. Algorithms don’t know what truth and reality is. The internet is this free roam service where anyone can say anything at anytime. How do we distinguish what is real from what is fake? How can we focus less on our public image and growing our followings, and more on working together to solve problems?

Right now, social media is creating more problems. I deleted my Facebook because I couldn’t stand to read the rude, Republican, Trump supporting articles my friends and family were sharing. I created an Instagram account where I followed Democratic, liberal, hippy’s, and I gathered my political information there. How are we ever going to actually solve problems if we choose to only listen to our side of the argument? We have to listen to the opposite side. And that doesn’t necessarily mean reading articles online. While yes, I am a blogger and encourage you to read articles online, I also encourage you to talk to people in real life. Get a second opinion. How do you know that the person writing an article from a Republican point of view is actually a Republican? How do you know if they are a credible writer with legitimate facts? How do you know they aren’t just spreading propaganda to get us to tear each other apart?

We won’t fix this alternate reality problem over night. But we can be aware of the ways we grow our public image’s online. We can think twice before we share things. We can check our sources. It’s not impossible to grow your popularity by speaking your truth. You don’t have to be a sleazy journalist and lie in your headlines to get attention.

Understanding and Structure

The Democracy Dilemma-

• Have you noticed that the political divide in this country is even stronger and more intense than its ever been in your lifetime? I have (mind you I’m 26. I know things have been politically tense before but this is the most intense politics I’ve ever seen).
• Have you noticed that each side is providing wildly different claims that really have no tangible, factual support? I have.

This one is a complicating one. Let’s face it, all of these dilemmas are complicating but this one really blew my mind. I think the most important thing to understand is that this is more than a political issue. It is not, “the democrats (or the republicans) are spewing propaganda and spreading fake news”, it is the algorithm. This article (link below) written by Aza Raskin and Renee DiResta was mentioned in the film. They explain how the problem we face is deeper than what President Trump mentions about fake news. There is truth to the fake news dilemma but it is not the problem of just the Democrats spreading it. It’s an algorithm issue.

https://www.wired.com/story/free-speech-is-not-the-same-as-free-reach/

But we know that the algorithms are essential for sorting data. So how do we solve this issue? Awareness.

We have to understand the structure of the algorithms themselves. How are they created, what they produce, what we need to look out for when searching online, etc. Understanding this structure does require some technological knowledge, but it’s not an impossible concept to grasp. We all use smart phones, we all use the internet; we all have a responsibility to understand this tool that we use on a daily basis. It’s irresponsible to blame one political side over another. As humans, we can’t all be grouped into the far right or the far left. We are all complex beings. Complex beings that being manipulated by technology.

I didn’t create this post to scare everyone. Nor did I create this post in order to bash on social media and the internet. With every negative situation, there is a positive. I will continue to use social media as a tool for my blog, but I will continue to learn about the ways it works for and against us. I will continue to expand my knowledge of technology and teach others to use it responsibly.

All of these resources come directly from this website:

https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/

I highly recommend checking this site out for yourselves and sharing this information with your followers. This site has great resources for all of us to use. They genuinely want to raise awareness of the ongoing internet manipulation we face. Along with raising awareness, they actually have concrete actionable steps we can all take to solve the unconscious dilemma we face.

https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/take-action/

Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto are all major planets tearing shit up in Capricorn and forcing us to take responsibility for our structures. They are working their way into Aquarius and will be shining their lights on the ways we humans use technology. As technology advances, we have to advance with it. I refuse to believe that our only outcome is in apocalyptic AI human control. We can get ahead of this and regain control. We just have to hold ourselves accountable and actively work to solve these issues.