On the Nature of Cringe · 6:07am Mar 10th, 2019
We've all done it before. It's not a behavior linked exclusively to a type of person. Rather, it's a joke, action, or phrase gone horribly within the context of a situation. Either you incorrectly guessed the atmosphere you were in, or lacked the skill/personality to pull the thing off.
And that failure, friends, leads to a feeling universal known as cringe.
Do me a favor?
Don't fear that shit, but dear macro, try to learn from it.
This blog is brought to you by Flo Rida's Low.
How do we begin a blog about the nature of cringe? Easy. We asses the purpose of the damn thing. Let us begin by first saying, due to the nature of this fandom, most of us here tend to be cringe lords.
Cringe is based on actions and behavior abnormal to social norms. Some people, due to no fault on their own, are unable to pick up on social cues to what is accepted in a group environment. Lots of people wound up in this fandom due to this inability, unable to find a social group in outside of the fandom, but finding plenty of like-minded people here.
Which is great. Friends online are equal to the ones down the road. But a problem arises in the online scene which doesn't get talked about much. Now, without pointing any fingers, I'd like to carry forward in a hypothetical situation.
You have John. He isn't exactly the most social. Meaning well, he tends to stutter and say weird stuff during a conversation, hence, he doesn't get invited to social groups much. So. With this absence of responsibility to reality, he takes to the web with his afforded free time.
And lo and behold: others! John finds people in the same situation as him. Everyone is awkward, but because of that, they all speak the same language. Each gets and understand the other. Everything is well.
The issue, as you will now find, is the original problem has not been fixed. This isn't to say the original problem has to be fixed. Everyone is free to live as they wish. But this blog is to focus on the nature of a problem.
Back to John. Being asocial and cringy, he has found refuge on the internet—along with others. While this is good for everyone to have friends and people to talk to, the original problem, the inability to learn from cringe, is here.
And the issue is that it becomes worsened instead of improved.
You'd think by talking to others online that John would improve his social skills. But they have not. In fact, they've only decayed. Why is this? The reason is simple. People who are cringe have gathered together, usually, in a place that promotes that cringe.
These people are embracing the very thing that warns them to knock the behavior down a notch. Social cues are overshadowed by random screeching about whatever the fuck. Topics about whatever is steered far away from its original course.
It's not something you really think about on this site. Most people—on good days—encourage community, perseverance, entertainment and encouragement. But you know what's a subject that never gets brought up? Teaching social skills to our fandom, not only to encourage better communication between us all, but to assist in those who deal with social issues in real life.
This was just a short point I wanted to bring into existence. If you are someone who thinks they are cringy, you have two choices to make. Either you accept yourself, stating you do not care, and that life as it is could worth being improved—your happiness is at its apex. Coolz.
Or you don't. In which case: go read some books! Talk to people on the site who, well, are good at talking! Try to learn social cues and react to them. That cringe you feel? It's because you've acted a bit over-the-top or out of the blue about something very weird.
For those who embrace the cringe—stop for a second. Yes, I get it. You're shameless and you don't care what anyone else thinks or feels. To an extent, you should not be afraid to express yourself. But c'mon man. Think of other people! Sure, cringe doesn't do much harm, but it makes the air awkward as fuck.
Can't you, for the sake of others, learn to tone it down? To have a decent discussion with other people, slowly letting them into your craziness before exploding with it. What becomes cringe to one changes with how well they know you—as well as how well you can pull the cringy thing off.
Point is to not be an echo chamber. Just because everyone else is doing annoying shit, which scares off decent people, doesn't mean you should be doing the same. Learning little social skills, thinking about how it feels to be someone else, helps you in making better choices for everyone present during a thing.
Alright. So we've gotten why you should fear cringe out of the way? Good.
Now here's the flip side.
Embrace that shit.
Don't worry. I'm about to fill you in. The previous problem I made mention of had to do with extreme cases. Those who don't even sense the cringe or do their best to ignore the feeling. Cringe is there to stop us from acting too abnormal socially. In that purist, so long it's not taken to an extreme, is a good cause.
But don't let a good cause take the fun out of living life, yo.
Real quick. I want you to watch a video.
Done watching? Good stuff.
What did you feel while watching that video? You cringe a bit? You're like most if you did, and there's nothing wrong with that. Seeing a bunch cringe kids doing cringe shit is bound to make you feel cringe.
Does that mean anyone should bear ill-will toward them?
Fuck no!
Y'all people need to chill with this shit. Do you know how often I hop into voice, hearing about some shmuck wanting to fuck Rainbow Dash, only then to complain about kids and stuff being too into Fortnite—doing those cringe dances and what not?
Go. Fuck. Yourself. Mate.
What the fuck is wrong with us when we don't let kids have fun anymore? To not give a shit and enjoy themselves? Straight up, we've all been there before. You know that Low song I linked? Guess what? I knew you grooved to that shit when you were a kid.
Alright. I lied. It was me who grooved to that shit.
When the lyrics hit low low low, do you know what I did? Leaned on my back, palm slamming against the ground, lowering myself to the floor. That shit was fun. The music was cool, my friends were doing it too, and though the dim, glow-stick lit gym was probably a cringe-fest—it was fucking fun!
So no. Just because you can mock other people for being cringe doesn't then prevent the same happening to you. And I doubt you're living much of life without the risk of being cringe. It's a reactor. Something that feeds you reaction information from an action.
It's not a thing you're supposed to avoid or ignore. The truth of the matter, is that aside from reading or being taught, we have to do cringe shit and then feel cringy afterward to know something was cringe in the first place. Pain and embarrassment come from this, hence why some flinch away from 'risky' behavior.
I'm here to say that you will not learn, or will not enjoy life, unless you accept the possibility of cringe. Notice how some people do cringe stuff and it doesn't come off as such? It's because they have the skill and personality to pull that shit off right—from experience and taste, they can flip something around to be socially acceptable.
But you can only have those senses by developing them. You can only see if you pull off certain things by attempting and improving upon them. Cringe is a tool to rate your success to yourself. To think otherwise is potentially harmful.
Because of this, we come to the thesis of this blog. Those unaware they are cringelords should stop, think, read, and learn for a bit, then strive to improve upon their social silks instead of having them worsen within a tight social circle.
Yes, you can get away with being cringe in a tight social circle, and thus, it becomes the new social norms. But that's not how it is outside the internet. Why? Because we value fair social interactions. One where we are understood, or given knowledge, entertainment, or plain clarity of ideas.
The very nature of cringe goes against these things.
So learn to be like the rest of the world—on a basic level at least.
The second part of the thesis is for you stale motherfuckers (said with jokes in tone). Be willing to risk being cringy for the sake of improvement or expression. If you respect the tool that is cringe, then you need not worry going all out. Those mentioned before don't take heed of that tool—you do.
But you shouldn't let it control your life. Groucho Marx was a comic genius. How'd he get that way? By sharpening his wit. How is that done? Saying every joke that came to mind. If you pause every joke, reflecting, then you cease the flow of jokes. You become too self-conscious. Instead of saying the thing, you worry about everything else besides the joke itself.
You can't do that. Based on your current skills, the jokes that escape will be based on the atmosphere around you. The reactions you get—good, bad, cringe—will welt your wit into better shape. Not every joke you say will land, but because of the process, your floor will rise and so will your ceiling.
Your jokes will get better. No thinking is required to invent them. Everything comes out as it should at the moment. But you aren't just born that way. You try a lot of things, use a tool like cringe to see how well they fare, then tinker.
And that's it, really.
Those who don't worry about cringe should care more.
And those who worry about cringe should care less.
This essay... was a neat one?
To be honest, I've been writing a lot of commission work—to the point my mind has gone stale. This idea sparked at the back of my mind for a while, so I tried writing it out. It came out alright, though, like most of my essays, it's half baked.
But still enough there for you to get the basic idea.
Welp. I've wasted enough time writing about the stuff other than my stories. I can feel my fingers starting to ache from how many times they bang against the keys of my keyboard. If this keeps up, then finger stretching will officially become a thing for me.
Ah well. Back to work.
~ Yr. pal, B ~
Nice blog. That part about fucking Rainbow Dash and making fun of Fortnite kids for being cringe is too fucking true.
Favorite blog so far, thank you
Really well thought out ideas and a strong unbaised viewpoint on the life of people both on and off of the ‘net. Your thoughts are worth being put into practice by both cringy and shy members of these communities.
It is so easy to miss moments and opportunities by tiptoeing through life concerned what the next motherfucker will think about us. I for one will definitely try a different approach.
Great blog, thanks for sharing it.
Did y'all just write a fkn ascertainment on cringe?
Absolute Madlad.
TL;DR
Don't be this guy:
Example: when I first made this account, I wanted to try talking like a robot would. It was really stupid, and I got lazy, so I stopped.
I once saw a video where a guy got punched in the face for doing a fortnite dance (the one where you swing your arms left and right moving them infront and behind your body).
And in the comments people cheered. Wasn't a fan of that.
5026034
When I made my ALT account for macro, I replied too all comments using poetry. Though I applaud myself for trying something new, I ALSO applaud myself for recognizing the need to drop it.
Either way, at least you had a good shtick going for ya.