# A Vibe Shift Is Coming

> A 2022 essay became a Twitter catchphrase and reached Collins’s annual word list.

- Owner: The Cut / Allison P. Davis
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Media & publishing
- Seed date: 2022-02-16
- Peak date: Week of Feb 16, 2022
- Date basis: Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 41 (Notable), v1.2
- Mechanics: Catchphrase, Response chain, Controversy, Platform jump, Press loop

## Summary

Davis’s label invited jokes and personal taste stories on a women’s fashion forum. Casey Newton explicitly adapted it to tech journalism. Longreads linked a critique of its spread, while New York ranked the essay fifteenth by 2022 audience-engagement minutes.

## Timeline

- 2021-06-09 — Sean Monahan (Open web) — Monahan published a paid 8Ball newsletter post titled “vibe shift”.
- 2022-02-16 — Allison P. Davis / The Cut (Press) — The Cut published Davis’s essay about Monahan’s prediction and the fear of being left behind.
- 2022-02-16 — Jonah Koslofsky / Gibson Johns / Ruth Ware (X) — Koslofsky, Johns and Ware turned the phrase into film, television and dinosaur jokes.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/the-cut-a-vibe-shift-is-coming

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “A Vibe Shift Is Coming.” Case HIS-00693. Spread Score v1.2: 41/100. Updated 2026-10-14. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-00693