The Great Vibe Shift: How Reality Fractured in the Digital Age

The sensation is both paralyzing and invigorating—a world full of risk and possibility where the very nature of reality has become increasingly difficult to grasp. What started as gradual changes in our digital and physical environments has suddenly accelerated, leaving many to wonder: What comes next?

As Ernest Hemingway wrote in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, when a character is asked how he went bankrupt, he responds: “Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly.” This perfectly captures our current moment—a vibe shift that arrived not in the way many anticipated, but through a complex blend of technological, social and economic transformations.

The term “vibe shift” originally gained traction after the pandemic, predicted to signal a cultural reset following COVID’s malaise. Several false starts emerged: 2021’s “Hot Vax Summer,” the return of “Indie Sleaze” aesthetics, and 2024’s “Brat Summer.” Each fizzled out, creating a build-up of tension without release.

But when the real shift arrived, coinciding with Donald Trump’s second term, it was unmistakable. Originally conceptualized by Sean Monahan in the trend newsletter 8ball and later popularized in a 2022 article in The Cut titled “A Vibe Shift Is Coming. Will Any of Us Survive It?”, the phenomenon has evolved beyond aesthetics or fleeting trends. It now represents a profound transformation of our societal fabric.

AI Destabilizes Everything at Once

Kyle Chayka, who writes a weekly technology and culture column for The New Yorker called “Infinite Scroll,” points to the pandemic as the initial tremor. “COVID lockdowns coincided with the height of internet existence,” Chayka explains. “It was when the most people were the most online. That drove people insane. That triggered the start of the shift.”

But the true disruptor was the rollout of ChatGPT in late 2022. “The big change is AI, and that came in 2022,” says Chayka. “It felt like a change in the air that suddenly destabilized a million different things at once.”

ChatGPT rapidly evolved from industry insider knowledge to a ubiquitous presence, fundamentally altering our perception of reality. “Now we are asking ‘is this person I am talking to at the call center real?'” Chayka notes. The technology didn’t just change our online experiences; it transformed our material world.

“We have to compete with machines more than ever before,” Chayka adds. “It’s also flattening reality and uniqueness, making everything look and sound the same.”

The Collapse of Shared Reality

By late 2024, the concept of digital detoxes seemed quaintly outdated. Social media platforms had fundamentally changed, with once-vibrant communities like Twitter (renamed X under Elon Musk’s ownership) becoming unrecognizable.

Returning to X after Musk’s takeover proved disorienting. Posts disappeared without engagement. Friends were hidden by algorithms or had migrated to other platforms. The norms around discussing diversity, religion, and gender had been abandoned. Users could express extreme views and be rewarded rather than facing consequences.

For many users, their feeds offered little local content, instead delivering a digital approximation of Trump’s America: threads about fitness regimens, conspiracy theories about vaccines, claims about “renewable energy scams,” and traditionalist gender roles. Musk consistently used the platform to amplify right-wing perspectives, attacking figures like Australia’s eSafety commissioner and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

This raised profound questions: Was this digital landscape an accurate reflection of reality? Were the accounts populating these spaces even human, or were they sophisticated bots? And which was more authentic—the earlier versions of social media filled with real-life connections, or these new spaces populated by strangers who might not be people at all?

The Splintering of Culture

As digital reality fragments, physical environments have paradoxically become more homogeneous. Cafes, restaurants, and retail spaces worldwide now share the same aesthetic: sans-serif fonts, subway tiles, beige furnishings, and abundant greenery.

“We crave physical environments that are conducive to digital experiences,” Chayka observes. “They must be comfortable, not too demanding, allowing for a seamless digital experience. While our digital reality is more individualized through algorithms, our physical spaces are less so.”

Meanwhile, traditional media’s decline has eliminated unified sources of truth. Newspaper editorials—once influential arbiters of public opinion—are disappearing in both prominence and relevance. People prefer conducting their own research, often from sources previously considered unreliable.

This raises troubling questions about social cohesion. If we no longer share a baseline understanding of reality, how can we navigate the world together? How can democratic processes function when citizens inhabit entirely different information ecosystems?

Economic Realities and Physical Transformations

The vibe shift has manifested physically as well. The widespread use of medications like Ozempic, originally developed for diabetes but increasingly used for weight loss, has rapidly altered appearances. Political affiliations are increasingly signaled through aesthetic choices, with distinctive styles associated with different ideological camps.

Social media filters further blur the line between reality and fiction, allowing users to present dramatically altered versions of themselves online. The cumulative effect is a disorienting sense of detachment from physical reality.

Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick, who analyzes cultural trends in his popular Substack newsletter, sees parallels with economic shifts of the past. “The 2010s was like our roaring 20s, and I think we are in the depths of what has come after,” he says. “The 2010s was a great era of amazing excess, and that came crashing down. That is what the vibe shift is getting at.”

The previous decade offered unprecedented access to luxury experiences—ridesharing, overnight shipping, affordable travel, cosmetic procedures—making everyday people feel wealthier than they were. Today’s reality is starkly different: “Income inequality means a corporate worker may have to pick up an Uber shift to make ends meet. Everyone is working harder for less money in real terms and worries about losing their job to AI.”

Finding Clarity Amid Chaos

In this era of fractured reality, the search isn’t necessarily for hope but for clarity—a firm understanding of what’s real. As social media algorithms increasingly isolate users in information bubbles, discerning objective truth becomes both more difficult and more essential.

The ancient Stoic philosophers warned of this challenge nearly 2,000 years ago. As Marcus Aurelius observed: “Everything we hear is an opinion not fact. Everything we see is perspective, not the truth.”

This distinction grows more critical as AI advances. Without agreement on fundamental reality, effective social functioning becomes impossible. Rather than retreating into the soothing digital worlds of artificial intelligence or algorithmic comfort zones, we can consciously choose reality—messy and unpredictable as it may be.

Both trend analysts interviewed expressed optimism that a backlash to our current technological saturation is inevitable. “On the other side there will be a total rush for offline experiences,” Chayka predicts. “Going to a party, climbing a mountain, seeing your friends—anything not reliant on experience through a screen.”

Early signs of this shift are already visible: renewed interest in reading physical books, vinyl records, film photography, and other analog pursuits. “People are logging off; this is what’s changing,” Fitzpatrick observes. “People are realizing that social media is not what it used to be.”

Perhaps this vibe shift, disorienting as it is, represents a necessary recalibration before a new era of genuine connection. “What we are witnessing and experiencing is a death rattle,” Fitzpatrick suggests. “The real vibe shift will come next, creating more economic equality, where we can use technology to see greed and check it.”

From a broader perspective, he remains hopeful: “There are so many solutions to so many things, there is so much tech progress, there is so much medicine. We are living in the spoils. We really are living in the best of times.” The challenge now is to remember to engage with the real world—to get out there and truly live.