Astrology memes and algorithms

This review originally appeared in the August 15, 2019 issue with the email subject line "A Season for Being Extra" and a review of interactive video software VidGrid.

Do you know what season it is? It’s not summer. MN State Fair isn’t for another week. A hint: it’s a season that invokes excesses of vanity, an abundance of confidence, and more than a little bit of drama. Turns out:

No joke: astrology memes are the greatest digital communication advancement since lolcat. Ask anyone with an Instagram account and minimal level of curiosity about personality types/astrology; they have likely spent the past two years learning the trademark characteristics of every sign in the zodiac.

All you have to do is search #astrologymemes and within three months tops, you’ll gain fluency in the nuances of each of the twelve sun signs, along with moon and rising signs, etc. You’ll know yourself better and get to the bottom of an astrological algorithm that’s been producing results for centuries. (I’d go on record that an astrologist is as accurate at predicting content success than a data-armed programmatic media specialist.) Astrology memes are wildly popular — I’m shocked more content-driven brands aren’t jumping on the bandwagon.

Memes, astrology or otherwise, are a new vernacular. I’ve heard complaints from professional editors and content perfectionists (all Virgos, probably) that they smell something rotten at the new Instagram aesthetic and the more recent proliferation of memes. Instagram photos no longer look like magazine shoots. They often look like screenshots and hasty jokes and vulnerable people in the process of change and well… what the internet was meant to look like, in my opinion. Astrology memes are a truly networked dialect; they simultaneously teach you about the subject of the meme (zodiac traits) and about how memes themselves work.