More than 50% of Gen Z-ers say anxiety about being cringe has prevented them from opening up emotionally. How did a reign of self-censorship come to define young Americans?
Relatable. I'm 28 and, unfortunately, grew up on social media. I stopped posting on Facebook several years ago after political arguments started affecting my real-life relationships, and the time I spent on that site felt more and more like a waste of my one wild and precious life. I haven't posted to my IG feed in over a year. All I do on there now is check group chats and dutifully repost work promos to my stories. Similarly, after a brief fling with TikTok around 2020-2021, I realized I just couldn't have a healthy relationship with that platform. It may be boomer behavior, but lately if I want to share something I'll just text a pic to my family.
I just don't feel like sharing moments of my life with the internet anymore. Maybe it's because I already went through the avocado toast phase. It was fun at the time, in a way - I did like connecting with people online over hobbies & interests we share - but I was also SO anxious about how I was perceived.
It's not just the scrutiny/cringe factor (though that is a part of it). The flip side was toxic, too. I've found it really transformative to break away from craving that validation I used to get from likes. I feel a lot healthier and happier away from social media.
& I don't care how Millennial my emoji use might be 😂 If a teenager thinks I'm old, they're right! I'm not 19 anymore and I have ZERO desire to be that young again. I'm happier and more confident than I've ever been. The kids can have their slang - I don't need it. It's a traditional rite of passage to become embarrassing to teenagers, anyway. If we're lucky, we'll spend decades of our lives becoming increasingly more embarrassing - and wise, and comfortable in our own skin.
cringe, at some level, is just a developmental stage in adolescents, but at another level it's just a rebrand of shame. Shame helps to enforce normative behavior in people. And so it goes that cringe is just a way to create a more homogeneous social order among young people. Perhaps with a world as atomized as ever, our socio-emotional world needs more shame in order to still create somewhat-cohesive social structures. Without cringe, the world would be too hard to interpret for a kid just entering the world; it's a tool for them to narrow their options. Not saying this is a good thing, per se, but it has a utility.
Milennials definitely made cringe culture. They're the Disney Adults, the man-children with Funko Pop walls, and the people who unironically call their dogs and cats doggos and cars, because for whatever reason they think that isn't worth feeling ashamed of or embarrased by. And maybe it isn't (I think it is though).
But gen Z and Zilennials shouldn't be so afraid of being cringe when just about anything they say or do, so long as it isn't on the level of internet-cute Redditor-speak ("omg my hecking pupper is such a smol bean!" "My hubby wubby bought me the CUTEST COLOR Stanley cup!" Etc.) Or doing tiktok dances in public (especially that one of the lady getting her waffles at a diner), will ever be cringey enough to not be worth doing. Unless it's proposing at someone else's wedding. But that's more universal and just plain trashy.
Honestly 99% of the dumb stuff young people do is either temporarily embarrasing/stupid but grows on you over time, or is the same kind of stuff older people did, just with new slang and in front of a camera. Ditch the camera and everyone's fine. It's the near-guarantee that someone will record what you did and post it on social media that makes gen Z worry so much, in my opinion.
For the record, I am a male Zilennial (1996) and feminist who got off social media around a year ago and almost immediately started thinking more clearly about literally everything. Everyone, especially gen Z, needs to get off of it.
Another way of putting all this that's much shorter is: Milennials created cringe culture because some of them began to use internet lingo "ironically" in real life. Then more people started doing it "ironically" to make fun of them or be "in on the joke." Then it got popular thanks to social media. Then they all were doing it genuinely and used "irony" or "sarcasm" as excuses for their repulsive cringey behavior, and it got more popular. Because it's such a large group of people, cringe turned into a sort of nebulous concept, and anything could be cringe, including having a boyfriend, or genuinely liking something. But when anything can be cringe, nothing can be: so now we have people blasting music on their phones in libraries, being very rude to waitstaff at restaurants, and acting extremely entitled all the time. People need to rediscover some moral fiber and backbone and decide that, no, some things are cringe and some things aren't. Reading in public? Not cringe, and often not performative (look to see if they're recording themselves to tell). Calling your purse an "analog bag?" Cringe: It's a purse. Me typing all this? A bit cringe and a little "pick-me." Not being able to read above a 5th-grade level? Not cringe: DANGEROUS.
I’m a millennial, and I instantly feel very protective of almost every Gen Z person that I meet.
And even though I’m not personally responsible for the fear of cringe they’ve inherited, I do feel like it’s my responsibility to at the very least acknowledge that what they’re feeling is real.
I think they need role models (that are a little closer to their age, so not boomers) who can show them what it’s like to be yourself in a way that isn’t, well, cringe.
Tbh, I roll my eyes at a lot of people in my own generation lol, but I also kind of get that they’ve just kind of checked out of “keeping up” with mainstream culture, because they feel overwhelmed in their own way too.
But we aren’t all like that, and I promise you that we care tremendously and we see you and we want you to be ok🫶
Relatable. I'm 28 and, unfortunately, grew up on social media. I stopped posting on Facebook several years ago after political arguments started affecting my real-life relationships, and the time I spent on that site felt more and more like a waste of my one wild and precious life. I haven't posted to my IG feed in over a year. All I do on there now is check group chats and dutifully repost work promos to my stories. Similarly, after a brief fling with TikTok around 2020-2021, I realized I just couldn't have a healthy relationship with that platform. It may be boomer behavior, but lately if I want to share something I'll just text a pic to my family.
I just don't feel like sharing moments of my life with the internet anymore. Maybe it's because I already went through the avocado toast phase. It was fun at the time, in a way - I did like connecting with people online over hobbies & interests we share - but I was also SO anxious about how I was perceived.
It's not just the scrutiny/cringe factor (though that is a part of it). The flip side was toxic, too. I've found it really transformative to break away from craving that validation I used to get from likes. I feel a lot healthier and happier away from social media.
& I don't care how Millennial my emoji use might be 😂 If a teenager thinks I'm old, they're right! I'm not 19 anymore and I have ZERO desire to be that young again. I'm happier and more confident than I've ever been. The kids can have their slang - I don't need it. It's a traditional rite of passage to become embarrassing to teenagers, anyway. If we're lucky, we'll spend decades of our lives becoming increasingly more embarrassing - and wise, and comfortable in our own skin.
cringe, at some level, is just a developmental stage in adolescents, but at another level it's just a rebrand of shame. Shame helps to enforce normative behavior in people. And so it goes that cringe is just a way to create a more homogeneous social order among young people. Perhaps with a world as atomized as ever, our socio-emotional world needs more shame in order to still create somewhat-cohesive social structures. Without cringe, the world would be too hard to interpret for a kid just entering the world; it's a tool for them to narrow their options. Not saying this is a good thing, per se, but it has a utility.
Milennials definitely made cringe culture. They're the Disney Adults, the man-children with Funko Pop walls, and the people who unironically call their dogs and cats doggos and cars, because for whatever reason they think that isn't worth feeling ashamed of or embarrased by. And maybe it isn't (I think it is though).
But gen Z and Zilennials shouldn't be so afraid of being cringe when just about anything they say or do, so long as it isn't on the level of internet-cute Redditor-speak ("omg my hecking pupper is such a smol bean!" "My hubby wubby bought me the CUTEST COLOR Stanley cup!" Etc.) Or doing tiktok dances in public (especially that one of the lady getting her waffles at a diner), will ever be cringey enough to not be worth doing. Unless it's proposing at someone else's wedding. But that's more universal and just plain trashy.
Honestly 99% of the dumb stuff young people do is either temporarily embarrasing/stupid but grows on you over time, or is the same kind of stuff older people did, just with new slang and in front of a camera. Ditch the camera and everyone's fine. It's the near-guarantee that someone will record what you did and post it on social media that makes gen Z worry so much, in my opinion.
For the record, I am a male Zilennial (1996) and feminist who got off social media around a year ago and almost immediately started thinking more clearly about literally everything. Everyone, especially gen Z, needs to get off of it.
Another way of putting all this that's much shorter is: Milennials created cringe culture because some of them began to use internet lingo "ironically" in real life. Then more people started doing it "ironically" to make fun of them or be "in on the joke." Then it got popular thanks to social media. Then they all were doing it genuinely and used "irony" or "sarcasm" as excuses for their repulsive cringey behavior, and it got more popular. Because it's such a large group of people, cringe turned into a sort of nebulous concept, and anything could be cringe, including having a boyfriend, or genuinely liking something. But when anything can be cringe, nothing can be: so now we have people blasting music on their phones in libraries, being very rude to waitstaff at restaurants, and acting extremely entitled all the time. People need to rediscover some moral fiber and backbone and decide that, no, some things are cringe and some things aren't. Reading in public? Not cringe, and often not performative (look to see if they're recording themselves to tell). Calling your purse an "analog bag?" Cringe: It's a purse. Me typing all this? A bit cringe and a little "pick-me." Not being able to read above a 5th-grade level? Not cringe: DANGEROUS.
And so on.
I’m a millennial, and I instantly feel very protective of almost every Gen Z person that I meet.
And even though I’m not personally responsible for the fear of cringe they’ve inherited, I do feel like it’s my responsibility to at the very least acknowledge that what they’re feeling is real.
I think they need role models (that are a little closer to their age, so not boomers) who can show them what it’s like to be yourself in a way that isn’t, well, cringe.
Tbh, I roll my eyes at a lot of people in my own generation lol, but I also kind of get that they’ve just kind of checked out of “keeping up” with mainstream culture, because they feel overwhelmed in their own way too.
But we aren’t all like that, and I promise you that we care tremendously and we see you and we want you to be ok🫶
Care too much? Cringe.
Don’t care? Also cringe.
There’s no correct way to exist it seems
Musically cringe compilations definitely played a role in all of this.