I live in California during the summers, so consequently I hear and say the word vibe a lot. One day, I realized I didn’t know what it even meant. I asked a few of my friends, and they all gave either non-answers or different answers.
So, this post.
When Brian Wilson says “I'm pickin' up good vibrations”, or when Tyler Cowen says “The changes in vibes — why did they happen?” or when Noah Smith says “the vibecession is still a mystery that needs explaining,” or when Bentham’s Bulldog says “A non-philosopher will often be moved by a general vibe behind an argument,” what do they actually mean?
What is the actual definition of a vibe/atmosphere/energy/frequency/aura and so forth.
Before we begin I want to distinguish between society-level vibes and individual vibes. For this post, I’ll call them micro and macro vibes.
O.K. Let’s start with the origin. Of course, it’s short for vibration. When did people start saying that?
Apparently, Brian Wilson actually heard about the word vibration from his mother. In the 1950s, the word was used as it is today, but only among very select hippie groups in California.
“[She] used to tell me about vibrations,” Wilson told a biographer, years later. “She told me about dogs that would bark at people … that a dog would pick up vibrations from these people that you can’t see, but you can feel.
Wilson’s song “Good Vibrations” then went on to popularize the term. By the end of the 1960s, it was being said by hippies all over the U.S.
My dad, who was born in 1951, tells me that in the 1960s, people would only use the word to describe things that you literally could not articulate.
For example, “Bob Dylan says he wants to go see the show with us, but something about his vibe is telling me he doesn’t.”
This gets us to my definition.
The word is supposed to have a mystical quality to it. It should be exclusively used to describe things that you can only gesture at.
Side point: What makes it really mystical is when both people independently recognize the same vibe, yet neither can explain it. (this can go wrong sometimes, more later.)
So if you go to a party and you’re getting a bad vibe, that means you can’t put your finger on why, you just have a gut feeling about it.
This is the cool definition, in my opinion. It should be used seldomly, for specific, kind of magical feelings. If you use the word like this, it actually has a place in your vocabulary.
You probably know where I’m going with this.
Nowadays, when people walk into a party, they might say it has a bad vibe, but that’s simply because the music isn’t what they’re into and they don’t know anybody. No mystery there bro.
Nowadays, the word vibe has become so popular that it has lost its meaning, what made it cool in the first place. Because of that, it’s extremely overused by my generation and the section of millennials that’s failing to stay cool. At it’s best, it’s shorthand for an aesthetic or a perfectly expanable mood. At it’s worst, it’s just a signal to other people that you want to fit in.
You see the latter a lot in advertising. Companies that want to attract younger people will often use it wrong. “Coffee shop with cozy vibes,” “good vibes only”. This is just lazy and ruins the word. If you could otherwise articulate what you mean when you say the word, then you are overusing it and being redundant and lazy. Instead of saying the cafe has a nice vibe, compliment the lighting, the drinks, the varnish on the furniture, and so forth.
Thus, micro vibe inflation.
Before I get to the macro side, I want to rant for just a little more about another term.
Low-key and high-key. Example: I was at a big house party with one of my friends last summer. We were all sitting around a fire talking, and there were some girls at the other end of the fire pit. Then one of my friends farted. It was pretty audible, at least on that side of the firepit. As we were all about to laugh, my friend frantically whispered “keep it lowkey, keep it lowkey!” although he was already starting to laugh at the absurdity. We all started laughing.
That’s a good use of the word lowkey. (side point, is lowkey a compound word? If not, I will continue to treat it as such. It’s too casual a term to be decorated by a hyphen.) He specifically does not want us to reveal something outloud. The opposite, highkey (which my generation uses a lot too) is self-explanatory.
Anyways, the point is that these words have a specific meaning, and they have become ruined by popularity as well. Gen Z routinely misuses them. To the point where every 4th sentence starts with the words “lowkey”. I love lowkey, but it’s not lowkey that you didn’t like the movie if you’re literally saying it outloud, it’s not lowkey that you’re dipping if you've already got one foot out the door, you can’t say you’re “lowkey gonna pull a pants beer!” if you’re already unbuckling your belt in front of everybody!
Anyway. On to the rest of the essay.
On the macro side, we see the opposite situation. The word is highly underrated.
Vibe has only just begun to make its appearance in the economics profession. Because of that, the word still carries weight. And contrary to your intution, it actually has a lot of explanatory power in the field.
In economics, (particularly in the econ-blog world) the definition is something like this: we have various measurable variables which help us understand society, however, often we are ignorant of various causal forces which at this point are impossible to quantify. This is usually referred to as culture, which you can think of as the error term. Or, if you want to be cooler, you can call them, as Keynes did, ‘animal spirits’.
Yes, animal spirits is basically a synonym. You’re correct that instead of using vibe, you could say the shift in vibes pre-2024 election was simply a shift in animal spirits. Personally I like vibe more on an aesthetic level, and it’s replacement of animal spirits in the econ blogosphere partially confirms my argument. For example, if there’s a disconnect between public perceptions of the economy and the actual state of the economy, you could label that as a vibecession, or animal-spirit-cession. C’mon people, we know which one looks better.
And yes, it has become more popular over time. For example, searching Marginal Revolution (the biggest (and best!) econ blog in the world) for the word vibe, I count 1 post in 2011, 1 in 2017, 1 in 2019, 1 in 2020, 2 posts in 2021, 1 in 2022, 7 in 2023, 11 in 2024, and 8 so far in 2025.
The explanatory power of the word is obvious: unquantifiable vibes drive economic decision-making and, consequently, economic fluctuations.
For example, the vibe shift, which Tyler popularized in his most popular post last year, was (is) a shift in the general sense of what’s cool, acceptable, or desirable. (in the conservative direction) Tyler gives some possible reasons in his post, but it’s quite hard to quantify them. So the use of the term accurately describes the situation and actually conveys a lot of information to the reader.
Conclusion: I wrote this post so that perhaps I can have an effect on the use of vibe and to a lesser (lowkey?) extent lowkey. It will be highly marginal, but as long as it’s in my direction, I’ll be happy. That’s the micro stuff. (although much more important, simply because of the amount of people using the term this way)
Secondarily I hope that more non-blogging macro-economists start using the term vibe. Of course, just like in micro settings, it should be used sparingly. But I think it deserves a least a small spot in their vocabulary.
Hold everything! What does this mean? ...you can’t say you’re "lowkey gonna pull a pants beer!” if you’re already unbuckling your belt in front of everybody! - I can usually, sort of, figure these things out contextually, but this one, no clue. Haven't the foggiest.
Also, love that lowkey, my favorite Asgardian.
Good game