Remember the time when you were slouched on the sofa, binge-watching your favorite TV show in a position that defied all human ergonomics?

Then you licked your Lays-coated fingers, wiped them on the sofa, rubbed some snot on your sleeve, and flossed the Lays out of your teeth with your hair.

Well, I don’t mean to disgust you- but that’s all of us in goblin mode. It’s a mode (read as: mood) where we occasionally get in touch with our wild, real, primal selves- not giving a damn about how we appear to be. 

It’s no wonder that when Oxford Languages asked us to choose a word for the year 2022, we chose goblin mode. It aptly describes the vibe of those post-pandemic days, when the perfect Dalgona coffee reels and cottage-core aesthetics of social media got the better of us.

According to Oxford Languages, ‘goblin mode is a type of behavior that is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.’

It’s when you show up with no make-up and a nightshirt to your online meeting because you just didn’t want to put in the effort that day.

It’s when you eat straight from the bowl or doom scroll your way until you fall asleep.

It’s when you lurk around the house at 3 AM having an abominable snack, just for the hedonics. 

While there’s no clear-cut line for what goblin mode is and isn’t, it’s safe to conclude that being in goblin mode is similar to doing everything that your mother does not want you to do.

The Goblin Virus

There’s no denying that COVID-19 brought a paradigm shift in the way we work and think; awakening the giant within that asks, “who are we trying to impress anyway, and why?”

Here’s what Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, has to say along these lines:

Given the year we’ve just experienced, ‘Goblin mode’ resonates with all of us who are feeling a little overwhelmed at this point. It’s a relief to acknowledge that we’re not always the idealized, curated selves that we’re encouraged to present on our Instagram and TikTok feeds. This has been demonstrated by the dramatic rise of platforms like BeReal where users share images of their unedited selves, often capturing self-indulgent moments in goblin mode. People are embracing their inner goblin, and voters choosing ‘goblin mode’ as the Word of the Year tells us the concept is likely here to stay.”

Clearly, the goblin virus breaks the cycle of immaculate lives on social media, resonating with us as we stumble back to facing crowds after emerging from our caves.

A welcome change?

Goblins: they’re tiny creatures who are mostly ugly, uncivilized, and lurk around in caves. They might not have showered in a few days or may act nasty, but they mean no harm. They just want to… be.

And that’s what goblin mode leads us to: a place of rest.

But being in goblin mode is not necessarily a lazy or sluggish way of living life. I believe it’s an intensely cathartic mode, a way of letting yourself go of masked appearances.

In a place where an insanely high standard of beauty or a picture-perfect life is a mere click away, going into goblin mode is like heaving a sigh of relief (and then carrying on with the masking bit, of course).

“Humans will always want to be inventive and find new ways of doing things and reach greater heights,” says Collette Stallbaumer, general manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work at Microsoft. “But ambition is tired right now. It’s not dead, but it needs a rest.”

I’d be lying if I say appearances don’t matter (especially in workplaces), but there are days when I simply couldn’t care less. I want to look hideous, be out in the open, and not be taken for face value.

It’s days when I’m not counting calories, slouched on the sofa in an abominable position, binge-reading a novel after a week of intense work.

That’s the trigger: being filter-less for a while, allowing your parasympathetic response to kick in and help you relax.

The catch, though, is to keep it temporary. We’ve all seen where long periods of inactivity and isolation take us. Spoiler alert: it’s not a good place.

I’ve always loved the line ‘sprint, rest, repeat’, and indulging in going goblin mode is a way to be wildly resting in a culture that constantly drums to the beats of hustle and success.

No matter how much you’d like to deny it, there’s a little bit of goblin that lives in all of us- it’s high time we pay heed.