By Kate Goodwin

Cringeworthy content has become prolific within the everpresent media, and it is near impossible not to bite. Cringe content grips the short-lived attention of the viewer at the unknowing expense of the creator. I can’t help but think of the negative social implications that result from fixating and accentuating an individual’s fleeting online embarrassment. As this mindset permeates out of its online origin and into the public sphere, our eccentricities become devalued by the looming fear of being labeled as cringe. 

Let’s start by defining cringe.

The term cringe has been around since Old English, originally being cringan. Just like our modern interpretation, it’s description varies but is most commonly cited as meaning “to fall, to yield in battle, to give away, to become bent, to curl up.” As all of us can attest, the feeling you get when you stumble upon old photos or posts from middle school is not unlike our contemporary sense of cringan. To cringe is to yield in battle within your sense of self– and to physically recoil your body in the process. Around the 16th century, cringan evolved into its present spelling of cringe, meaning “to bend or crouch in embarrassment, servility, or fear.” This brings us to our present formulation of the word, which is the 19th century definition of  “to recoil in embarrassment, shame, or fear.” 

How does this transfer into online discourse? 

During the latter half of the 20th century, cringe comedy gained traction in popular TV programs. This influence is reflected in shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Nathan For You– the list is endless. It seems like only a natural progression for cringe comedy to inevitably bleed into other forms of media. The fascination with cringe content perfectly resides within the realm of social media platforms as it’s already a notoriously brutal stage in regards to criticism and judgment. The issue with this blended model of modern comedy content is that the creator is not a character. They are real people posting with genuine intentions. Instead of gaining traction for the reason they expected, their eccentricities are capitalized on as others are able to write them off as cringe and throw them to the viral hungry social media wolves. This reductive attitude towards others is dangerous, not only in terms of online discourse but also in how it carries over into our day-to-day lives. 

What are the social implications of cringe content?

Social media changes our perception of others and shapes our perception of ourselves. What we see is the extent of our knowledge so we take it as the absolute truth– or at least it feels like that sometimes. As we are exposed to post after post devaluing another individual for simply being themselves, it only reinforces the idea that we have to reduce ourselves to a more palatable version in order to be fully accepted by others.  Cringe content is breeding a population that is diluted of authenticity by compelling us to intricately belittle ourselves before others get the chance to. 

Rejecting cringe fear-mongering, online and off, cuts the ties that connect our opinion of ourselves to the opinion of others and ultimately frees us to just be.