Photo courtesy of senior Owen Spargo

My daily horoscope from Elle, a popular lifestyle magazine, reads “Today’s quarter moon in Aquarius and your communal eleventh house reinforces the spirit of collaboration. Gather a quality crew to fill in any gaps you’ve noticed in your own efforts.”

  Well, I guess I better go make some new friends to fill in the gaps of my life. But just like that, with a quick Google search and a random person looking at the moon, I’m given simple and easy life advice. 

  And it seems I’m not the only one. On social media platforms like Tik Tok, new trends have popped up where users make generalizations about certain signs that viewers are eager to believe. 

  “Yeah, I’ve seen videos where people will say things like ‘If they like talking about themselves, they are such a Gemini’ and those videos get millions of likes,” said senior Nivashini Saravanakumar.

  In fact, according to the American Federation of Astrologers, more than 70 million Americans read their horoscopes daily.

  Yet this begs the question, are stars and moons really the answer to all of life’s questions? Are they actually telling of someone’s personality?

  Well, there isn’t really a scientific basis. It’s more due to a psychological concept known as “self-selection” or interpretations of events based on what we hope is true. 

  “People magnify the positives, they forget the negatives, and that’s just how we’re designed,” said astronomer Sten Osenwald.

  So maybe horoscopes are real, maybe they’re not. But one thing is sure, and that is that for many they definitely offer some comfort regardless of their validity.

Sources: Elle.com, Time.com