One of the latest trends this year is the obsession with astrological signs and their “meaning.”  Zodiac signs are based on a person’s date and time of birth and are supposed to predict futures or give advice based on different horoscopes. They are also said to predict certain personality traits. Many students at St. Pius X participate in this intermediate divination and drag their friends into it as well, and even if you don’t know a devotee personally, most people know their sun sign which is also based on date of birth. 

However illogical this may sound, many people are heavily invested in this bootleg fortune-telling. Zodiac enthusiasts prey on their unsuspecting friends, pestering them about their exact birth times and analyzing them accordingly. 

A current trend on TikTok is “Showing where I would keep each zodiac sign if they were kidnapped,” and then showing a series of rooms of varying comfort each tailored to a specific sign. 

This trend is the product of Zodiac sign preferences, as many enthusiasts often like or dislike certain signs, despite a person’s actual personality. There is widespread dislike for Cancer, Scorpio, and Gemini sun signs, not to be confused with moon or rising signs. 

Moon signs are based on the exact time of birth and place of birth, so if you were born at 2 am in Hawaii, that would allegedly affect your love life differently than someone born at 5 am in Argentina. They are said to show your emotions or intuition and how that will affect your life. 

Rising signs show your outlook on the world, and are based on what sign is on the Eastern horizon when you were born. Sun signs show your deepest self, and are regarded as the most important. 

These arbitrary meanings have deeply infiltrated popular culture, with Zodiac profiles showing up in Snapchat upon entering date and time of birth, the Zodiac Daily podcast on Spotify becoming widely popular, and searches for “best zodiac sign” increasing over the past year. 

The idea of Zodiac signs also hypothetically offer the possibility that if someone were to be born on the same day as you, at the same time, in the same hospital, the two of you would have nearly identical personalities, and your futures would look morbidly similar. 

While Zodiac signs can be fun in the same way as a fortune cookie, an obsession with them can be destructive, as taking guesses for truth is a dangerous game. These astrological futures are nothing more than a heavy case of confirmation bias, with even more falling into the trap as coincidence occurs.