3 Reasons Why I Hate the Word "Vibes"

1. It makes me think of a disease, like a gross one.

I just think of the bubonic plague, leprosy, or some kind of disgusting skin rash when I say the word "vibes" aloud. Ask me why? I'm not sure exactly. I cannot fully articulate why, but it makes me think of some sickness that just won't go away. Ironically, the word "vibes" just won't go away! It just keeps popping up in many people's vocabulary in this day and age. I can just picture or hear people saying in a British accent, "Watch out! He's got a bad case of the vibes!" My skin starts to crawl when I think of this. If I'm honest, every time someone says the word "vibes," my skin just crawls in general. There are few words that cause me to react in this way. Many people seem to have a distaste for the word "moist," but that one doesn't bother me at all. I could eat moist pound cake all day and be perfectly happy! As long as no uses the word vibes while I'm eating my moist pound cake, then I'm content and my skin will not be crawling.

2. It is a vague term.

Another reason why I believe that the word is annoying is because it could mean so many different things. Sometimes people use the world as a positive thing when they ask, "Are we vibing?" From my understanding this means that two people are enjoying one another's company or the activity at hand. There are other times when people will use the term as a negative term. They may say things like, "The vibes feel weird here, or off." To me, it seems as if there are so many other words that could be used in place of the word vibes. Apparently, you can "vibe" with a person, or a song, or the atmosphere, or all of the above at the same time!

3. It seems to be a term aligning with new age thinking

In my opinion, the term vibes seems as if it may be congruent with some of the premises of new age thinking. People who are into new ageism talk about "putting off energy," and I would imagine that the word vibes would be used when talking about energy. As a slight tangent, one of the many paradoxes with new age thinking is that there is supposedly "bad energy" but then the goal is to work toward being your own god of sorts, which is essentially pantheism. If everything and everyone is a god, then who decides what is "bad" is anyway? It is one of many illogical tenants to the new age movement. I have continued to witness how many new age principles have been adopted by many Americans. Meanwhile, I daresay that most Americans do not even realize that this is happening because it is so incredibly subtle. This may seem a bit drastic to say, but when people start using terms, or speaking any given lingo, then this can lead to different ideology. All this to say, I encourage everyone to be mindful of how your words in general may lead to your ideology and value system.

In conclusion, hopefully this has made you think about how many times you use the word vibes in your daily conversations. Do you like the word, or not? Why? Are there other words that you catch yourself saying that you really wish you didn't say? Generally speaking, it is fascinating how some words and terms trend into and out of popularity. Sometimes terms cycle back again with newer generations and the older generations just smile and chuckle about it. It is proven that the more people read, the better their vocabulary becomes. I remember reading a lot of classical fiction books during my middle school and high school years. The more diverse types of reading that people delve into, the more diverse their vocabulary will become. What are some different types of articles or literature that you would like to explore?