An article in Wired online magazine entitled “Facebook’s Gone Rogue” embodies the mystical fog (Pisces) between the wired and the “real” world of information (Uranus) that we have seen accelerate since Uranus entered Pisces in 2003.
Uranus is the planet that takes a radical departure from the conventional, but it also rules the higher mind as well as technology. Under the influence of Uranus in Pisces the presence of the Internet has become more and more ubiquitous as the boundaries between the wired world and our brains become less distinct. This blurring of boundaries is associated with Pisces, and Uranus is now at the very last degree of that sign, preparing to enter Aries at the end of the month.
The first smartphone was developed in 1992 and released to the public in 1993, just in time for the entry of Uranus into Pisces. The smartphone enabled the eventual portability of the internet so that smartphone owners could stay connected virtually (no pun intended) 24/7.
Over the past couple of years, Facebook has become the primary means of blurring the distinction between online life and personal life, as well as the distinction between that which is personal and that which is private. In its purest form, Uranus is completely transpersonal. It has no sympathy for emotional connections or distress – it seeks a world where everything operates in perfect efficiency and reason. At this writing Facebook has over 400 million members, and claims that these members spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook. I myself can attest to this!
However, all is not rosy in the Uranian world where everything is equal and life in virtual reality approaches perfection. The 29th degree of a sign is the degree where the matters of that sign are completed for that cycle, and as Uranus sneaks ever closer to Aries, where it will be focused more on individual rights and less about the uniting of all peoples, personal privacy will become more and more important.
Hence the lawsuit filed this week by 15 privacy and consumer protection organizations against what they are calling Facebook’s “unfair and deceptive trade practices.” According to Wired magazine”
Facebook thinks that your notions of privacy — meaning your ability to control information about yourself — are just plain old-fashioned. Head honcho Zuckerberg told a live audience in January that Facebook is simply responding to changes in privacy mores, not changing them — a convenient, but frankly untrue, statement.
In Facebook’s view, everything (save perhaps your e-mail address) should be public. Funny too about that e-mail address, for Facebook would prefer you to use its e-mail–like system that censors the messages sent between users.
Hi Lynn,
Very interesting! I have recently become more wary about FB, and also Google and the centralization of info with email/calendars/pics all housed through one source.
Regarding Google and privacy, I remember an op-ed piece by Maureen Dowd last year (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/opinion/15dowd.html?_r=1) that kind of gave me the willies:
“But there is a vaguely ominous Big Brother wall in the lobby of the headquarters here that scrolls real-time Google searches — porn queries are edited out — from people around the world. You could probably see your own name if you stayed long enough. In one minute of watching, I saw the Washington association where my sister works, the Delaware beach town where my brother vacations, some Dave Matthews lyrics, calories Panera, females feet, soaps in depth and Douglas Mangum, whoever he is.”
Yikes!
Before reading that, it really never occurred to me that my searches ‘went’ somewhere and would be read — much less broadcast — by others. That really made me think twice about the virtual trails we are all leaving with our keyboards and fingertips.
Again … yikes!
Cool Blue, this might frighten you as well, but I subscribe to a service that tells me how every reader finds my blog, and the trail they take once they get to it.
And one other thought on Uranus in terms of its somewhat ruthless pursuit of equality/equal rights for all:
Now in one sense, we might all agree that everyone is created equal and deserving of human rights, equal rights under the law, etc. Sounds like a noble goal. But in my experience with social media, technology and our current ‘wired world,’ another Uranus effect is to sort of force everyone to be considered of equal weight, even if not of equal merit. The tyranny of democracy, if you will, where people demand to be heard and given the same credit for their comments/contributions even if they are lacking in knowledge, experience, or even basic articulateness.
I feel a real pressure to accept quirky and unusual (Uranian) methods of speech in this wired world of blogs, Twitter, etc. that is kind of killing off the more conventional, polished writing styles that many of us grew up with (and worked damn hard to master!). And not only unconventional speech, but speech that is just plain wrong, misspelled, grammatically a mess, etc. I wonder how this criticism comes across, but it really bothers me!
In the spirit of belonging to the group, conforming, it seems like the individual ability to shine/stand out/rise above based on merit is lost.
I have my Moon in Aquarius so there is always a bit of tension for me in this department — balancing the need to fit in with the need to be unique and different, or just “true” to myself. Lately with FB and everything else, it feels even harder to resist the tide. It sometimes feels like I am drowning, overcome by these huge waves and losing my own boundaries.