Being a human is forever and inevitably embarrassing. Whether it be minor setbacks, like tripping on your way up the stairs or holding up the line, you’re left overthinking, begging not to be perceived.
Why do people find everything cringe?
Social media has radically broken the barriers between our public and private lives. Intimate moments that once belonged to diaries are now a spectacle, only encouraging oversharing instead of vulnerability. Oversharing can become a dangerous idea, as it often affirms your perspective instead of considering the entire story, only distracting you from the solution. The Internet spreads not only ideas, but promotes certain types of feelings, like isolation and agreement. On the Internet we vent, and thereby judge things too harshly. Maybe other people label something as cringe because they, themselves feel cringe and project that self-doubting. If they’re constantly in a judgmental mode, either from learning this behavior and their mind finds everything insufficient.
I feel because people have labelled their preferences as standards, e.g. icks on romantic partners, on social media. This idea spreads through likes, follows, and comments, making people who never thought twice of it, now disgusted with that very idea.
The main problem with labelling everything as cringe is because it disregards the underlying meaning of that thing. To me, it’s selfish. Your attention is always focused on something internal, rather than on the conversation and my words or body language.
When is something cringe?
‘Cringe’ is still a useful word, to criticize what is awkward and by my standards, forcing yourself into someone’s business when in a relationship doesn’t warrant that. Cringe is when you force an interaction on other people or when boundaries are overstepped. Your creepy uncle three-times-removed, who you don’t know, tries to hug you in a family gathering, flirting with your waiter, or when someone texts you thousands of times trying to get you to respond immediately, anytime someone is uncomfortable by your intentions, that’s cringe.
Well, why are people who try hard to be “cool” cringe? It’s because they’re overthinking inside their head. They’re afraid of overstepping, and act colder, because they’re not attending to other people’s words and body language. Focusing too much on something being cringe doesn’t allow you to see the world externally. Get out of the idea of cringe, and immerse yourself into the music instead of your own mind. You need to learn to dance, to sing, to enjoy yourself even in the presence of other people, despite the presence of other people. Don’t let other people embarrass you. Let people judge you, just smile at them and move on. And maybe that makes someone’s day.
After all, to be human is to be cringe.
