Cringe Culture: DON'T Fall For It | Ethics of Cringe

if you’re familiar with the internet, you’re familiar with cringe.

Or at least, I am, I have been called cringe, I mean, I even tried to wear pigtails once and my little brother called that a cursed image. And though there is a modern Gen Z attempt to reclaim the word cringe, such as the phrase although I am cringe, I am free. But, if you’re called cringe, you know it has deep, deep negative connotation. And researching cringe through an academic perspective brings up a whole bunch of fun articles we can learn from.

Timestamps:
0:00 happy to be back (clearly lol)
1:52 cringe and social hierarchy
5:27 being afraid to be genuine
6:00 Cringe and Empathy
9:45 the difference of cringe in 2000's and now

This video essay will (essentially) be split into 3 parts, we’re going to be:
1.) Cringe & Social Hierarchy
2.) Defining Cringe Academically
3.) Intentional Cringe (which is commonly used in comedy shows like the office, fleabag, and always sunny, some SNL skits) that are intended to make the consumer feel cringe for entertainment
VS.
Unintentional Cringe (which leads to the feeling of inferiority about a persons own sub or counter culture and most likely personality) this would encapsulate people who end up on cringe compilations and most notably pop music cringe but DID NOT intend to be there and to jog your memory insert pop cringe here

If there’s one thing people are terrified of, it’s being genuine. This trend in enjoying things “ironically” is a safe place to exist because if nothings taken seriously you’re safe.

In general, It’s hypocritical to look at cringe culture and people who are deemed cringe and say the group or person is irredeemable. They’re people, trying to be creative or even just have fun. And people are also just allowed to create silly things and enjoy them.

The purpose of this video essay was just a little bit of a taster into why we have the visceral reactions that we do. Why do we feel the impulse to cringe, and how it is natural and empathy based, and can be destructive only if we allow ourselves to think we’re above others. But we’re all a little cringe. We can laugh at others because things are silly and low quality but yknow, I’ve seen people genuinely enjoy cringe pop.

Cringe culture and its end are not a be-all end-all for a lack of human kindness, but it will always be a part of the online world. Remember to try to be kind and to think of others as more than pixels on a screen. In short, cringe culture makes me cringe, when people call people cringe I cringe because you’re cringe, but then I cringe because I am cringe, and cringe culture is cringe.

Resources From This Episode (Source Notes)

1.) Cringe Culture Through A feminist view: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full...
2.) Melissa Dahl: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/16...
3.) Cringe In Sigaporean Music: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40541426...
4.) Caleb Clark: https://studybreaks.com/thoughts/fare...
5.) https://theswaddle.com/why-do-we-crin...
6.) Cringe Pop Music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cringe_pop
7.) Cringe Pop Music 2: https://alternativestory.in/cringe-pop/

Academic Articles On Cringe
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/10/3/99

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