Pop Culture dictionary

vibecession

[vahyb-sesh-uhn]

What does vibecession mean?

A vibecession is a period of widespread pessimism about the economy regardless of the actual economic situation.

The term vibecession references the word vibes, in the sense of “a general feeling or attitude.” During an alleged vibecession, the vibes are bad (in a “recession”) due to people feeling pessimistic about the economy.

Vibecession is a non-technical term that refers to low consumer sentiment, a measurement of the public’s opinion on the economy. The term vibecession is used to refer to a time when the economy is relatively good according to financial data and statistics, but the public is pessimistic about the current or future economic situation. This pessimism could be due to a wide variety of reasons, such as a period of inflation being good for borrowers but bad for the average person. Another common theory states that millennials and younger generations contribute to a vibecession because they frequently learn about the economy through social media, which tends to emphasize negativity and pessimism.

The term vibecession emerged during the summer of 2022 when American consumer sentiment was significantly low during a time when inflation was at a 40-year high. The term became popular with the mainstream media, which frequently used it during 2022 and 2023 to describe the economy.

Related words

vibe check, quiet quitting, boreout, quiet firing, quiet hiring

Where does vibecession come from?

image of woman with her head in her hand sitting at a desk at work, blue filter.

Vibecession combines the words vibe and recession. In economics, a recession is a period of economic decline and contraction. Vibecession refers to a period when the vibes (consumer opinion and outlook) have entered a figurative recession due to negative views of the current or future economy. A so-called vibecession can occur regardless of the actual state of the economy.

The term vibecession was coined by content creator Kyla Scanlon. Scanlon used the term in a June 2022 article “The Vibecession: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy” as part of her newsletter and social media content. Scanlon argued that consumer sentiment has a significant impact on the economy, and consumer sentiment was at significant lows in the summer of 2022. Scanlon used the term vibecession to refer to this period of low consumer sentiment and explored the term in her article, theorizing why the “vibes were off” even though the economy wasn’t actually experiencing a recession at the time.

Scanlon’s term vibecession and her economic theory accompanying it was repeatedly featured by the mainstream media in 2022 and 2023, which often quoted Scanlon. These articles and opinion pieces, which often analyzed Scanlon’s argument, spread further awareness of the term vibecession.

On social media, the term vibecession was often met with skepticism. People frequently accused it of being a fake media buzzword, as is often the case with other economic terms, like quiet firing.

Examples of vibecession

Some say the US is in a "vibecession," a disconnect between how the economy performs and how Americans feel about its performance.
Noah Sheidlower, Business Insider, July 2023
As far as the vibecession, it's worth saying that people were unhappy about inflation (rising rents, healthcare costs, college tuition, etc) even when inflation was 1.5%
@yFactr, September 28, 2023

Who uses vibecession?

The term vibecession has been featured in the media. On social media, vibecession is often used seriously and jokingly by people who encounter it through the news.

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Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of vibecession like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of vibecession that will help our users expand their word mastery.

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