After publishing my essay in The Conversation on vibes, I have spent the past fortnight doing a mini media blitz – 10 radio interviews across Australia and NZ, including a few ABC radio shows and the late night program on Radio NZ. People are so keen to talk about ~the vibe~
Most programs started by playing the iconic clip from the 1997 film The Castle, which I adored. I was played out by some classic tunes too, of course ‘Good Vibrations’ by The Beach Boys and ‘Feel the Vibration’ by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Hosts asked a heap of interesting questions about the origin of the term, why it’s so popular today, and the ‘science of vibes’.
I was nervous as for the first couple but relaxed into it (a little). Last year I was fortunate enough to do a media training program through my university so I practiced what I had learnt (deep breath, feet flat to the floor, be a human (lol)).
These chats have been a nice challenge for me, to try and get simply and quickly at the ‘so what’ of sociological research. My success has been varied, I think. A few times I’ve talked about data privacy as an example, where people might know the concrete things to look out for in a dodgy email like odd font but most of the time are driven by a gut feeling, a sense that the vibe is off.
My main argument in my vibes-based methods article is that tuning in to a vibe, attuning to the significance of vibes in people’s lives, can help us do better social research. They can be a way to get closer to understanding the things in social life that resist quantification and definition, that remain ambiguous yet are force-ful, generative, affecting.
As I keep researching things like atmospheres and collective feelings, I will keep turning over the potential applications, value and impact of ‘the science of vibes’ for a long while yet.
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