From Vibe Checks To Vibe Shifts: The Endless Trolling Of 'The Vibe'

The ability to separate fact and feeling in communication is a skill that some forms of communication are better at than others. Memes are one of the mediums that tend to disavow this. While they might not always be a form of propaganda, they can be all but guaranteed to set the mood. It’s no surprise then that when the internet caught wind of the media’s latest signal of cultural change – the now-immortal Vibe Shift – it knew exactly how to react. Memes have dealt extensively in vibes for the past few years, getting them down to a fine yet inconsistent art.

Primarily, vibe-based memes are all about trying to place a finger on the pulse or making fun of those who are. The openly threatening nature of the Vibe Shift was outlined in an article by The Cut as “shaped by a sense of doom” that could easily leave an entire generation behind. Equal parts fatalistic and navel gazing, the catchphrase as a meme took some predictably dramatic turns in its styling. The thing about the vibe is that they will often only get brought to the center of attention with a change — mirroring, in some ways, how a meme extends its life cycle.

Existing as an urge that is seemingly uncontrollable on an individual level, it also paves the way for insecurity and letting others define you via the vibe. This can be seen operating on various levels of seriousness and irony with What Vibe Do I Give Off? A participatory meme that gives the consumer multiple choice options with which to label the creator, the format preempts their fate in a specific way that brings a more organized and defined chaos to proceedings.

While they may not be easily definable in memes or as a concept, the vibe operates as a way of exacting a kind of authority and an analysis of the environment. We only have to turn to the continued pass or fail impact of the Vibe Check to realize the role played by this. A format that acted as the doorman to the universe of ironic memery, it became a stark reminder of the consequences of not being able to read the room.

It became such a pervasive concept in online spaces by the end of the previous decade that the Vibe Check Test was developed, settling once and for all how individuals came across using meme aesthetic approved terminology.

This is backed up by concepts like It’s Not The Vibe STOP, the TikTok update for this immortal internet sentiment. A sound that puts forward an insistent and immediate shutdown of whatever is being offered, it takes back the agency of the vibe through an abrupt attempt at control that’s just remixed enough to come across as powerful.

The alternate side to this has come in the form of the Stress Vibe Check, whose combination of breathing and Windows 95 start-up sound acts as a kind of mini mindfulness exercise for those who are overwhelmed, but also aesthetically inclined. The process isn’t always easily reversed, but the counterforce is there.

Because the vibe doesn’t often dwell on a set menu of specificities, this has made it all but inevitable that it begins to split in its portrayal via memes. As if it wasn’t confusing enough to begin with, the vibe can also be portrayed as vibes, which are usually less about passing judgment and more about being part of the moment. As a hippy-adjacent slang term, it’s only fair that it occasionally gets used as part of its original meaning of bringing peace and love (as far as internet culture makes such a thing possible).

This can be seen in the No Thoughts, Head Empty meme, whose slight variation with “no thoughts, just vibes” exemplifies this peacemaking element. After all the stress of vibe checking and shifting, this can only come through the embrace of a kind of enforced void.

In a more specific sense, this less fraught version of the memed vibe is best described by the various niches that it gets used to describe, which can become small memes in themselves. Everything from holding music to being non-binary has been distilled into this memeified version of a precise feeling. The looseness of the category means that although it pinpoints things, it’s also ever-expanding and mutating into the most updated and reference point-checked version of itself.

Although not a part of this group through wording, something like CatJAM / Vibing Cat is a pure distillation of this softer, more enjoyable side to these types of memes. Instead of worrying about the definition or the changes it may or may not go through,
Vibing Cat encourages a sense of unity with the most positive vibrations, no matter the background music.

Ultimately, the vibe is all around us, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Its meme treatment simply acknowledges its pervasive presence. Ever-shifting, mood summarizing and prone for use in making swift judgments, it’s easily argued that many memes could be defined as a vibe in themselves. They may frequently go in unwelcome directions, but the vibe is only what we make it.

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