Enneagram in The Age of Algorithms
What happens when we're not the only ones reinforcing our unconscious habits?
It was a normal day that started like any other. I got out of bed, made myself coffee, and started my morning practices. Movement, breathwork, meditation, all very standard. It was the fall of 2018. I had just finished my Narrative Enneagram certification and was enjoying how the intensive training process was influencing my work with my yoga therapy clients. I had also started the Conscious Enneagram Instagram page, and was actually having a good time creating inspirational content for my meager following.
I had finished my practices and then checked my phone. I was in a habit of posting each morning, but on this particular day, something had changed dramatically. I was suddenly up a couple thousand followers—literally overnight. My notifications were flooded with likes and comments, and as I looked around, so were all the other Enneagram focused Instagram accounts I followed. After a bit of internet sleuthing, I discovered that a new Enneagram account had gone viral and it was taking every other Enneagram-focused Instagram account along with it.
In so many ways, Enneagram and Coffee, the Instagram account of Sara Jane Case, put the Enneagram on “the map” and introduced it to a new generation of spiritual seekers. It was something as silly and simple as “Enneagram Bingo,” that captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. And I get it, seeing a meme that so accurately depicts the many aspects of your inner world would definitely pique my interest! I wholeheartedly believe that this was a wonderful moment for our community, and I’m sure many of you reading this found my work after this social media boom.
But that was in a very different time in terms of how social media functioned. Accounts would post, often using hashtags, their followers would see it, and interact with it if they chose. Growth in social media was much more organic. A follower would see something they liked, share it, and their followers would engage and so on. Hashtags were also helpful, but they almost always required someone to be searching that hashtag. In other words, they had to be looking for what they wanted. In today’s social media landscape, though, it seems we don’t know what we want until the algorithms show us what we want, to borrow the phrase from Steve Jobs. We have everything we could ever want shoved into our faces 24/7 by the various algorithms. But it is what we want, right? What could be so bad about that?
The shift was slow at first, and the algorithms seemed to be doing everyone a favor. Social media could see what you interacted with, make assumptions about other content you would enjoy, and send it your way. It was a harmless shift, making it easier to find more of what we already liked. Most would struggle to see the downside here. We have to remember, though, that these social media companies have an agenda, and that agenda has almost everything to do with money. Companies like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and so many more), X, and TikTok make money off of our attention. I’ve often heard this in regards to modern social media: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” This is exactly the case in our social media fueled world.
Now, it’s no surprise that big companies are fueled by money. They used the algorithms to keep us on their apps longer in order to charge advertisers more and convince us to spend our hard earned cash. But when a person’s attention becomes the hottest commodity on the market, much more than our wallets are on the line.
These companies are making money off our attention, and changing our brains in the process. Anyone with even a sliver of self-awareness can see that social media has changed drastically from its heyday. The content has become shorter, punchier, more bingeable, and maybe worst of all, more divisive. There are scientific studies from all over the world proving how these algorithmic social media platforms are the cause of extreme screen addiction and chemical imbalances in the brain. These companies need us glued to our phones, or they don’t make money. So, what does this mean for those of us committed to our personal and spiritual development with the Enneagram?
These companies know what makes us tick, and use it for their own gain. If we continue to consume this content indiscriminately, we’ll become more deeply embedded in our type structure. Think of it this way, if we’re only ever seeing what we want to be seeing, or only things that reinforce what we already think, feel, and do, how will we ever be able to look outside of ourselves? The quick dopamine hits social media feeds us, also reduce our ability to produce the more long-lasting feel-good hormone serotonin. This not only leads to often severe depression, but quite literally limits our capacity to self-observe and work with our type structure. We can only do the work of stepping outside of our type structure if we are well resourced, and today’s social media is draining us of our vital energy.
I’ve spent a lot of time over these last several months thinking about how I want to engage with social media and online content now that I’ve come to realize all these things. I know that my work as an 8 requires that I not engage in the outrage that so much social media wants from me. It would be so easy for me to go on “Enneagram Rants” and call out all the bullshit I see from teachers who have no integrity, meme accounts who have no idea what they’re talking about, or regular people using this tool as an excuse for their shitty behavior. And that’s just the Enneagram-related outrage! There’s so much to be angry about in the world! And social media is where I can see and respond to it all in real time! But how would that serve my personal growth? Spoiler alert: It Doesn’t. I can feel it in my body when I read something I find offensive, a jolt of powerful energy followed immediately by a crash, like an old car that got started up and then petered out, and I certainly don’t want to live that way anymore. That’s the whole reason I got into this work to begin with.
Even if you aren’t a rage-addicted Type 8, the algorithms are picking up on your patterns even if you aren’t. At the risk of over anthropomorphizing a math equation, the algorithms are incentivized to pay attention to what keeps you engaged, and give you more of it. Are you a 7 that’s full of wanderlust? Watch your social media feeds fill with travel and adventure focused content. Are you a 6 concerned with how to keep your family safe in the midst of a disaster? Here comes a mountain of wilderness survival videos and reviews of solar generators! It’s dangerously subtle, and without a fair amount of intentional effort, we’ll fall prey to doomscrolling and all its sinister side-effects.
I’ve been mulling these things over for months now, and I finally found some clarity about what I wanted to do in response to all these things rolling around in my head. My goal is to limit scrolling as much as possible. I still get paid money to post on certain channels (about bikes, which I love), but when I think about engaging more heavily with my Conscious Enneagram accounts, it is just out of integrity for me. I don’t want to try and create “Enneagram Content” for social media, because it doesn’t actually support our growth. I’ll post on my CE account to let people know about the podcast, and other opportunities to connect with me and my work, and I’ll check in to stay connected to the community I’ve built there over the years, but the content for content’s sake is a no-go for me.
Which I understand means I won’t have as much reach as I once had, and honestly, this feels like a trade-off I’m willing to make. If you’d like to stay connected with me, and my work, I encourage you to join my email list which you can do through my website, and subscribe to this substack, where I’ll be writing more Enneagram specific content and reflections. As I’ve divested from social media, I’ve found so much more peace and clarity than when I was glued to my phone, and I’d like to create more and more opportunities for my audience to find the same, so you won’t find much of me or my work on social anymore. Thanks for joining me on this new adventure!
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