Every year has its word, and, according to Oxford Dictionaries, 2022 was the year of the goblin, or at least of the goblin mode. Why am I involving those mythological nasty little creatures? Because for the first time in history, the public was allowed to choose its word of the year: given three options, selected by lexicographers from Oxford University Press (OUP), more than 300,000 English speakers cast their vote from every corner of the world to choose the word that best defines our times and mood. And the winner was goblin mode, with a massive 93 percent of the total, a really long margin over the second, “Metaverse”, with its 14,484 votes and the third, “#IStandWith”, which got 8,639 votes. Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Languages, said that this extraordinary engagement caught them by surprise and that “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 idealised, curated selves that we’re encouraged to present on our Instagram and TikTok feeds.”

Goblin mode: meaning

So, what is the meaning of goblin mode? It’s “a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.” Even though its origins are unclear, it was first attested in 2009, when someone tweeted:

I was in full hyperactive goblin mode last night. it was as if she ate a bag of sugar-coated candy, then washed it down with a few red bulls.

Even though we don’t know much about it, one thing is crystal clear: she had unleashed her primal side and welcomed that little, nasty goblin attitude she was unconsciously carrying within herself. In case you’re not that familiar with goblins, they are rude, supernatural creatures resembling humans who enjoy being mischievous. Their cockiness is a fairly domestic attitude: after a first stage when they used to hang out in caves, with the ascent of urban life the stories about goblins started to describe them living in houses rather than in open spaces, thus the resemblance with our ugly, lazy side, which was unleashed by the pandemic and the domestic chaos it generated.

This is not the first time an attitude has been defined as a mode: people started to go beast mode in 2007, then savage and sicko, and it all started in video games, where a hidden challenge may activate a special style of gameplay (maybe you can be 10 times faster or stronger, look different and so on). If you go X mode, you get the most prominent characteristics of X, so if you go goblin mode you activate the messy, feral, mischievous part of yourself you usually keep hidden in order to get more likes on your profile. The return of goblin mode was again on Twitter, this time in February 2022, to laugh at a photoshopped headline: “Julia Fox opened up about her ‘difficult’ relationship with Kanye West. ‘He didn’t like when I went goblin mode’”.

Ludwig’s wrap-up

Our ability to go goblin mode is a superpower we developed during the Covid times, when our true wild selves managed to come to the surface, refreshingly authentic and invisible to the public. In a time when the world was slowly, painfully returning to social life after the pandemic isolation, Goblin mode became full aesthetic rebound from immaculate self-presentation. An example of goblin mode? Let’s face it, we’ve all been there sometimes: do you remember that big hoodie you kept wearing, even after it got stained because you were eating on the couch while binge-watching your favourite tv show? There you go! Self betterment wasn’t on the to-do list, you were clearly not running for the most popular person around, at least not that time. Social expectations and the cult of productivity can trigger our mental health, so going goblin mode can be a way to celebrate self-indulgence while getting rid of those annoyingly dull self-love mottoes: I’m taking care of myself, but I’m not flying with unicorns, I’m a crisps-loving couch potato and I’m proud of the stains on my pyjamas!