Rodrigo Llanes Salazar
It’s becoming a habit at this point in December to write about the word of the year according to the Oxford Dictionary. In 2018 the word was “toxic”, a term that ranges from the growing poisoning of the planet with pesticides, microplastics and thousands of other substances, to practices and discourses of masculinity that cause suffering, or unhealthy habits at work and in our personal relationships (who if you are interested in the subject, please refer to the column “The end of a toxic year”, Diario de Yucatán, 31-12-18).
In 2019 the word, or rather the expression, was “climate emergency”, since, according to the Oxford Dictionary, “urgent measures are needed to reduce or halt climate change and avoid the potentially irreversible environmental damage that results from it”.
On that occasion I wrote about Verónica Gerber’s unique book “La compañía”, an experimental, literary and visual work on how a mercury mine in Zacatecas became a toxic cemetery (“Fascina ‘La compañía’”, D.deY. , 12 -23-19). Certainly environmental issues are one of the topics I write about constantly in this column.
In 2020, the year of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, the Oxford Dictionary decided not to choose a single word, but to focus on language changes, largely related to Covid-19. It should come as no surprise that, in 2021, the Oxford Dictionary named “vaccine” the word of the year, as did the Merriam-Webster dictionaries and the Fundación del Español Urgente.
The Covid-19 vaccine —its manufacturing process, its uneven global distribution, its different brands, state enforcement policies, movements against it— have been the dominant themes of the last year ( “Impact of the vaccine”, D.deY ., 1-24-22).
This is the first time in at least a decade that the Oxford Dictionary’s choice of word of the year has not only surprised me, but I’ve never seen or heard of it. The word, or rather the expression, is “goblin mode”, which has been translated as “goblin mode” or “goblin mode”.
In the Spanish Wikipedia, “goblin” is defined as “a monster of European folklore with multiple representations according to each story, which could be inspired by fables about genies and forest elves, of Germanic origin”.
Probably more than one person is familiar with the term from the “Spiderman” comics and movies, where the Hobgoblin or Green Goblin is a major villain.
I was more puzzled by the fact that 93% of the 340,000 people who took part in the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year poll voted for “goblin mode” over “metaverse”—which came in second with only 4 Vote %— and the hashtag “IStandWith” (or “YoApoyoA”).
What does the term “goblin mode” refer to? The Oxford Dictionary defines this expression as “a type of behavior that is blatantly self-indulgent, lazy, lazy or selfish in a way that rejects social norms and expectations”.
According to this Dictionary, the expression’s origin dates back to at least 2009, but it went viral in February of this year when a Twitter user, @meowmeowmeuw, posted a fake headline with alleged statements by actress Julia Fox, which read ” Julia La Fox opened up about her ‘uneasy’ relationship with Kanye West: ‘he didn’t like him when he was in goblin mode.'”
Of course, the fake news —word of the year 2016 for the Macquarie Dictionary and 2017 for Collins English— on Julia Fox does not make us very clear what the expression “goblin mode” refers to. Is it just being scruffy, scruffy and lazy, as some media point out?
Of course, being in goblin mode means being locked up – or confined – to your own cave, in a vague and lazy way. The article on the subject written by Kari Paul for “The Guardian”, published in March of this year, is entitled “Slobbing out and Giving up” – which could be translated as “Loitering and give up” – and is accompanied by an illustration in That where a green leprechaun is lying on his messy bed, staring at his phone, surrounded by junk food.
Similarly, Begoña Gómez Urzaiz, in her article for “El País” entitled “Between laziness and nihilism”, writes that “The leprechauns of 2022, however, are not found in the forest or in the highlands but rather on the sofa, eating French fries fries, loose rubber pajamas and a remote control or mobile phone at hand to choose platform products that do not require intellectual effort”.
But the term “goblin mode” is more than just laziness. Writer Cat Marnell has observed that there is a healthy goblin mode and a destructive one. The destructive one would be the indulgence, laziness and laziness described by Paul and Gómez Urzaiz. The healthy one would be the one that counteracts the strong social pressure to be a “perfect” person, so common on social networks, especially Instagram.
Recall that one of the reports in “The Facebook Archives” claims that “32% of girls say that when they feel bad about their bodies, Instagram makes them feel worse.”
Studies and hearings have documented the impact on mental health, particularly on anxiety and depression, that this social network has on adolescents.
Thus, when faced with the pressure to have the perfect body, the incredible journey, the delicious food, or the happy friendships, being in goblin mode involves a critique of an idealization that is not only unrealistic, but often harmful.
Goblin mode goes beyond the use of social networks. Probably, if the word 2022 has been chosen, it has to do with the pandemic moment we are in.
It goes without saying that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to lockdowns, mandatory use of masks, closure of “non-essential” activities, transfer of work and teaching activities to online and remote format, curfew, “healthy distance” measures, greetings. each other with a fist or elbows and not with a hand or a kiss, among other actions that have transformed our now called “old normality”.
We should now be in a ‘new normal’, where many – if not all – of the previous measures have been left behind. However, socially, there hasn’t been a return to the moment before the pandemic.
In sectors such as employment and education, for example, there has been more attention being paid to the issue of mental and emotional health, which, of course, did not arise with the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has become more urgent.
Also, as various media have documented, the need for certain business meetings or wearing formal dress to be productive has been questioned. Many procedures that seemed to have to be done on paper, it is now clear that they can be managed online.
Most importantly, as a study by Angelina R. Sutin and her colleagues notes, the Covid-19 pandemic has also impacted personality, especially among young adults, in the United States. This is particularly evident in small but significant decreases in extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (“Before-and-After Differential Personality Change in the Coronavirus Pandemic in a Longitudinal Sample of US Adults,” “PLOS One,” 9-28 – 22).
In this sense, the goblin mode can also be understood as a questioning of some of the social norms of the “old normal” that seek to impose themselves on the “new normal”, as well as social norms related to extroversion and directness.
In the workplace, the goblin mode can perhaps be related to Bartleby the clerk, a character in the homonymous work by Herman Melville who “would rather not carry out” the tasks assigned to him.
Well, maybe being in goblin mode isn’t the same as preferring not to do what we have to do, but it can be an act of prudence and caution in the face of the hyperproductive tendencies of today’s society.
The words of the year chosen from dictionaries such as the Oxford one should capture the “spirit” of the year that is about to end. Words and expressions such as “toxic”, “climate emergency” and “vaccine” are widely used in both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries.
Until now, I’ve never heard anyone refer to “goblin mode” in Spanish. Perhaps it will remain as an English expression circulating on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Of course, in the face of so many problems, indulgence and laziness should not be glorified. But, faced with unrealistic aesthetic standards, imaginative lifestyles projected on social media, and a hyperproductivity that cares little about people’s mental and emotional health, maybe it’s a good idea to switch into goblin mode. Merida, Yucatan.
Cephcis-UNAM researcher
