Mixed messaging…

There is an extraordinarily annoying – and, I would argue, inadvertently harmful – phrase that has become popular in the last couple of years.

Now, I know I have written columns before giving off about words and phrases that I find pretentious, stupid and smug… But, please, don’t worry, because this one is different.

In an age where most of us are in agreement that ‘it is okay not to be okay’, some people are calling – and sometimes mandating – for ‘good vibes only’.

Weirdly, it is often the same people preaching both.

Talk about mixed messaging?!

If you are under-60, I am going to guess that you have heard people using the phrase ‘good vibes only’.

If you are reading this, however, I am going to assume there is a chance you are not under-60, therefore might not have.

As almost seems like a prerequisite with most annoying language, ‘good vibes only’ can be used in many situations, and for a variety of purposes, making it pretty ubiquitous, making it all the more annoying.

Though it is found everywhere, those partial to using it can embrace the wisdom – or lack thereof – contained within it, to widely disparate degrees.

Your auntie, for example, before a big night out, might tell all the girls that she wants ‘good vibes only tonight’.

By this she probably means that she has not had a decent night out in a while, and, therefore, does not want to have her proseco soured with any gratuitously sad stories.

On the other hand, there are those to whom ‘good vibes only’ is less a casual call for a bit of craic, and more a guiding personal philosophy.

I know people who have taken ‘good vibes only’ not just as a motto, but as something that functions in their life like the golden rule: Just as Jesus taught his disciples to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, the cult of ‘good vibes only’ implores its devotees to resist any and all negativity in their life.

This, in my view, is where the problems really start.

Inseparable from life is the inevitability of suffering, strife and sadness.

Just as joy is an emotion most of us are fortunate enough to feel during our time on earth, misery is destined to come our way as well.

At such times, when the grey clouds gather and we struggle to see sun, having as your philosophical bedrock a mantra that denies the possibility of negativity, is unlikely to provide you with either comfort or direction.

The prevailing cultural currents of the last 20 years have come to understand that mental health is something that we all possess, and, just like our physical wellbeing, will inevitably wane at certain times throughout our life.

It is from this progress that slogans – now akin to modern day aphorisms – like ‘it’s okay not to be okay’ have arisen.

I do not know if ‘good vibes only’ is some sort of cultural backlash that should be expected in such fast-changing world; an attempt to cling onto the old ways.

Or, indeed, if it is simply this generation’s expression of mankind’s perennial desire to live in a more perfect, utopian world.

Whatever the reason for its rise, I look forward to seeing its fall.

If you are the kind of person that is tempted to get ‘good vibes only’ tattooed on your body, do.

But make sure it’s on your forehead. That way I will be able to see you coming.