A Sociological Perspective on Astrology Through Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Process

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, which affects the world, continues to deeply affect the material and spiritual world of people. The pandemic, which affects all aspects of social life, has deeply affected the daily practices and spiritual living spaces of individuals. During the period when COVID-19 was effective in Turkey, many astrologers, who had gained popularity with their claims about COVID-19, attracted the attention of social media. The adventure of astrology, which was stuck in the fortune-telling corners of the newspapers in the traditional period, maintains its existence by rising with analyzes and predictions about the future and character of the person in social media and TV programs in the modern period. The fact that the predictions of astrologers, which suggest that the character and future of the individual are related to the planets and star movements in the sky at the time of birth, are frequently featured in the social media has increased the curiosity of those who are in a spiritual search for their problems during the epidemic days. So much so that the line of astrology, which continued its existence with fortune telling in the traditional period, has turned into a form of vital guidance in order to meet the needs of those who are in search of it. In a TV program in December 2019, the predictions of some astrologers about the COVID-19 pandemic accompanied a process that left its mark on Turkey's astrological history for a long time. The influence of astrological predictions brought astrology to its peak during this time. In this article, it has been tried to give a realistic picture of the current situation of the astrologers' future predictions for the COVID-19 pandemic in some social media and TV programs and the reactions of the followers to these predictions.