cringe

The 2010s, once dismissed as the “cringe era,” are being reclaimed by Gen Z, who view it as a representation of the “fleeting freedom” they’d never experienced, with their own coming-of-age consumed by pandemic lockdowns and political turmoil.

Irony is already a hallmark of Gen Z’s cultural expression and a coping mechanism honed in the hyper-visibility of the internet. When you’ve grown up always aware that anything you post could become part of a permanent digital footprint, doing something “ironically” offers a kind of social insurance. If it lands poorly, you were never serious. If... See more

2016-era “Instagram makeup” has made an inevitable comeback on social media. The revival — complete with sharp contour, matte finishes, block brows, and hyper-pigmented eyeshadow — taps into Gen Z’s obsession with nostalgia and irony. Is it homage? Or parody? I think a bit of both:

Millennials, in turn, are defending the acronym as a necessary tool for tone and nuance. TikToker Anna Gaddis sparked the debate by clarifying that “LOL” signals lightness, not laughter, prompting over 5.8 million views and comments like “If I don’t use ‘lol,’ I sound rude” and “It’s to soften delivery.”

Gen Z has turned George W. Bush into an unlikely internet icon, with TikTok edits under the tag #Bushcore reframing him as a goofy, endearing “grandfather” figure. Viral clips of him saying “Now watch this drive” or dodging shoes in Baghdad are shared as comedy among fans too young to remember the Iraq War. Some TikTokers have even begun calling... See more

Identifying as a “foodie” used to be cringe. Junaid Bhatti, a sophomore at New York University, doesn’t care. “I’m a big foodie,” he said. “Beli has a changed the game for me.” There’s a typo in that last quote, or perhaps he just said it in Mario voice:

Much of his early campaign — a 33-year-old dude, standing on a street corner with less than 1 percent in the polls, asking random people why they voted for President Trump for a YouTube video — was objectively cringey. There was something about Mr. Mamdani’s goofy sincerity that younger voters appreciated.

1. Sincerity: It’s 2008 and you beg your mom to take you to the mall so you can buy skinny jeans. Your family makes fun of your too-tight jeans.


2. Saturation: It’s 2016 and your entire friend groups shows up to the pre game in some variation of high-waisted skinny jeans and a crop top.


3. Cringe: It’s 2020 and anyone who still shows up in a skinny jean

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