I mustache you a question: What were you doing in 2014? Rocking skinny jeans and an infinity scarf purchased from American Eagle? Going to school with a chevron-print backpack? Making ‘Musicallys’ with friends, waiting for your Unicorn Frappucino at Starbucks? Chances are, you were probably doing something like this. Something that makes you now look back at your younger self and cringe. Cringe, in today’s terms, is generally used to describe something bad, or painful to experience, metaphorically or literally. It is often rooted in ableist views, making fun of things with a generally neurodivergent fanbase, or the fans themselves. According to The Michigan Daily, “Digital ableism has worsened since the explosion of the digital age at the turn of the century, expanding far beyond the cyberbullying of social media users with disabilities”. The word “cringe” has had a massive uptick in popularity with the exponential growth of Tik Tok. According to The Swaddle, “The more mainstream the genre of cringe becomes, the easier it is to be subdued by its effects. It is no wonder that Cringe TikTok is a burgeoning canon of its own”. Any video different from the rest is labeled and made fun of, almost every comment expressing the same statement: It’s “cringe”. It isn’t a good thing to be. However, in 2014, cringe held an entirely different meaning. Cringe culture was the closest the internet ever got to unity. People of all ages and fandoms were making original art and sharing it with the world, drawing mustaches on their faces and posting it to Snapchat in glorious sepia tones, listening to “Panic! At the Disco” in thick, edgy eyeliner, and no one batted an eye. In fact, many of these now “cringe” trends were extremely popular. So where did it go? How did Cringe Culture fall so far from grace? Why is it so wrong to “be cringe”?
Many of the reasons 2014 was so iconic were its cringe-worthy trends, many of which originated on the then insanely popular app, Tumblr. Tumblr was a haven for all things 2014. It had everything, from the opposite aesthetics “Emo” and “Cute Girl”, to “One Direction” fan pages, to pictures of ‘Baby Lips’ chapstick under a sepia tone. 2014 had many different iconic aesthetics and trends, but Tumblr connected all of them and in turn, connected its users too. Since everyone in their own light was involved in 2014 trends, or “Cringe Culture”, there was no need to make fun of anyone who was doing something different. People were allowed to embrace themselves wholeheartedly and enjoy what they enjoyed. Cyberbullying existed back then, too, of course, but on “Tumblr”, most users were fans of whatever they liked, unashamed.
Nowadays, 2014 brings a sense of nostalgia to most teenagers and people in their 20’s, despite most of the year’s trends being outdated and out of style. People reminisce on the simplicity of the year and many want to return to that era, but even if skinny jeans made a comeback and the flower crown filter returned on Snapchat, the sad reality is that no one would be unified like they were in 2014. This is ultimately because cringe culture is dead, and it can never really return as it was in the early 2010’s.
So, when did cringe culture die? Its massive popularity stayed into 2015 and 2016, but things started to decline when the infamously cringey app, Musically was sold to ByteDance Ltd. on November 10th, 2017, and became the widely known app TikTok in August of 2018. The transition from Musically to TikTok signified many changes in the Internet world. Musically was a staple of the cheugy, cringe-worthy world of the early 2010’s: If people weren’t making mini music videos at 2x speed, creating complicated transitions trying to be a famous “muser”, what were they even doing? One of the most popular types of videos on the app were skits in which people lip-synced to cringe worthy, outdated jokes. It was much like Tumblr, a subset of cringe culture that encouraged users to take themselves less seriously and be their authentic self. When it transitioned to TikTok, most Musically users continued to lip sync and make jokes, but the app was not as built for that as it had been before. As TikTok grew, so did its fan base, and it transitioned mainly to dancing videos and regular music. Today, it is one of the biggest apps in the world. However, in this four year time period, people got more comfortable on the internet, and decided that it was acceptable to bully people online with no consequence, a phenomenon that is most prominently seen on TikTok.
In an average TikTok comment section, hate comments will of course be present, but positive comments will also be there, sometimes overwhelming the hate. However, in a comment section of a TikTok people perceive as different, weird, or cringe-worthy, the comment section is most often filled with hateful remarks and truly cruel insults towards the poster. Hate has become so normalized on the app that no one bats an eye at the comments. With hate being so common on the app, there’s not many people who will post their authentic selves for the world to see, much less proudly display their interests and aesthetics. The people who do are usually bullied, and unfortunately, often fall into neurodivergent or LGBTQIA+ identities, simply because their existence is perceived as “different” or “wrong” by close minded people. With there being very few outlets for people to express themselves without fear of being judged, cringe culture slowly died out, and people began to follow whatever basic, popular trend they saw online.
Of course, this doesn’t mean everyone is the same. People still enjoy “cringe-worthy” things, and fandoms are still alive and well. However, the mass rise in cyberbullying put an end to the Tumblr era many in their 20’s and early 30’s knew and loved.
It’s unclear if cringe culture could ever truly make a comeback without being met by backlash, but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be authentic to their true selves. Everyone should have the right to wear what they want, do what they want, and be who they want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. If people continue to stay true to themselves in the face of bullying and hate, the internet could become a better place even if cringe culture never comes back.
Kerry Cullen is a first-year writing for film, tv and emerging media major who wants us to embrace our cringe. They can be reached at [email protected]