Mercury is conjunct Jupiter in Aries right now. You might push yourself to think big. This is also about a new ideas and a fresh perspective.
We all know there are bots aka AI aka people who are paid, overtly or otherwise, to influence us in an endless variety of ways, that are probably not good for us. You may be more or less influenced but speaking for myself, I don’t like my time wasted.
Scrolling through Twitter, it’s beginning to look like little but a parade of “hungry ghosts”. If the term is new to you, it describes a person who is constantly in need; grasping for your time and energy, never to be fulfilled. It’s similar to the more modern concept of a person being “thirsty”. But in this case, satisfaction in unachievable.
You may also see it as an endless hype loop. In whatever case, these planets are coming to square Pluto and the shadow side of this is palpable.
Again, speaking for myself, I realized I am scrolling, mindlessly – why? So that I might be the first to come across something of value? What if none of it has value?
The other day, it struck me, scrolling twitter all day does you as much good as sitting in a dark room, watching a disco ball spin. Ooh. That was satisfying! That was a good use of my time – not!
This is also tied to Saturn in Pisces; time slips away. But we also tend to become what we consume. Personally, I’m limiting the junk and going for the real stuff, in every way on every level. Discipline, to avoid self-undoing.
What do you think?
LOVE – “Discipline, to avoid self-undoing” – I am enjoying Saturn in Pisces
If need be, have a baking timer next to your computer to help ween off.
I would scroll early am then evening to essentially get my news (plus have no TV by choice). Now I am limiting myself even though I never really spent a lot of time scrolling the twitter feeds. It was my way to just zone out because my work days are hard and long. We have to be careful when we are in alpha brain wave state and what we let into our minds, plus I have no doubt it impairs the frontal lobe in some capacity to just scroll.
These waves are great for spiritual practice and prayer, deep relaxation and meditation but if they are active and you are bringing nonsense info and mindless junk then I can’t see this as contributing to mental health and fostering neuroplasticity aka exercising the brain.
With Saturn in Pisces we find ourselves enjoying old movies we’ve never seen-classics, film noir and just a lot of retro films. I am getting a good film appreciation class for free when we discuss them after and both being artists of one kind or another, it’s a good way to bond and spend evenings. I much prefer this to being in social media to which I limit myself because I can see the rabbit hole of AI ad nauseum pulling us all down into a time sap. I subscribed to about 15 YT channels but only really watch about six of them. Time to pear down. YT and here’s are the only two places I go.
You’re speaking my language with the old movies 😍! When I tell people I like old movies and they think I’m talking about the 80’s…lol no, I’m talking about the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, early 60’s. TCM is one of my favorite channels and after 20 years, my husband now watches it, too, and doesn’t accuse me of breaking the tv (because b&w movies) 😂🤣
😂
Yes, my favorites have always been 30s-40s-50s-60s classics. When I was married my husband would never watch anything B&W. Later on my own I rented them all and bought used copies of my favorites. Now I love YouTube for the ability to find clips of anything, anytime.
AI influencing us, perhaps it can be a good thing -depends on the message.
Us paying AI or for AI, example – self scan checkouts – we pay for that through the products we buy from that store. We pay for things that supply algorhythms. It may not be the machine we will have future problems with – it will be the creator (inventor). I hope I make sense?…
I think I understand you. Related to your point, I was thinking, algorithms are invented for a reason that’s personal to the inventor. Let’s say an inventor invents an algorithm that analyzes all the laws contained in the entire body of law of a country. The inventor thinks, ‘I’m going to see where the law has holes in it.’ The inventor wants to make the law stronger by plugging the holes revealed by the algorithm – it’s a goal specific to the inventor. Now along comes a person who would rather keep the law weak. This person says, ‘Thanks! This algorithm is perfect for finding ways to loosen up the law.’ This person is charismatic and many people jump on this person’s bandwagon. This person applies the algorithm and everyone applauds because now the laws are less strict. The algorithm has completely blown up in the inventor’s face!
“The psychological theory behind scrolling is known as intermittent reinforcement. Behaviorist B.F. Skinner proved back in 1956 that rats could be manipulated more easily if rewards and punishments were sporadic and unpredictable.
If you want rats to press a lever, you give them rewards—but not every time. This was Skinner’s brilliant insight, and he demonstrated it in numerous experiments…”
– Ted Gioia
I feel the same way. Social media has taken the place of TV, movies and print media for mind escape. It amuses but goes into the brain and out again! I learn more from other media really in a more constructive form. I’m takin writing classes to wean myself off it all and it’s not easy! Haha. I am more in touch with other cultures and parts of the world than i was before though.
Pluto in aquarius time. Chat gpt was something I’ve heard lots talking about but haven’t tried it until a few days ago. My uranus was chill with it but my saturn in aquarius was unsettled. I have a love hate with these things. Skype gave me a heart attack with their ‘assistant’ trying to reach out to me out of nowhere. I don’t use the inbuilt laptop assistant. Bots and robots and Ai, stop assisting me. I like going to wikpiedia by myself better.
Andrew Huberman has a ton on his podcasts/you toobs about dopamine – the reward chemical – and how social media gives you a teensy burst of it to keep you addicted. He has tons of ways to take control of your own dopamine, and to get it in ways that are in line with what you really want. He has a lot of quick ways to build dopamine, but they are not quite so easy as scrolling, alas. I am working on finding some I can do daily.
For example, cold showers. Or even just turning the shower cold for the last 30 seconds – this is a great way to generate dopamine that has long lasting, positive effects. We need to educate ourselves about this stuff! But that cold water is… cold!