cringe

• Lest you think 2016 nostalgia has fully peaked: The Chainsmokers surprised Ohio State students by crashing a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity party before the big Ohio State vs. Texas football game, turning the event into a massive, impromptu concert. The EDM duo performed hits like “Closer” and “Roses,” prompting the below reactions from Gen Zers:
  
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Rihanna just revived the early-2000s Bump-it, reports Bustle . It was only a matter of time...

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.”

Since then, the concept of nerdiness has largely transformed from insult to aspiration and nostalgia for the ’90s has never been stronger. Watch any school dismissal and you’ll spot your share of low-rise jeans, claw clips for the hair and point-and-shoot cameras. Metal orthodontics seem to have logically followed.

Salish and her dad have taken the MrBeast playbook (eye-catching thumbnails, over-the-top challenges, click-driven storytelling) and tailored it to a Gen Alpha girl audience. Instead of million-dollar stunts and bro humor, their videos center on wholesome dares, tween friendship drama, and “shipping” sagas (“ARE THEY DATING?”).

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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Millennial commenters express a desire to rewind to that era of their lives; younger posters wish that they could have lived through it in the first place. Like “Home,” these other relics hark back to an unencumbered life outside of our performative digital panopticon. As a bit of internet-vernacular wisdom puts it, “I am cringe but I am free.”

“Home,” these other relics hark back to an unencumbered life outside of our performative digital panopticon.

many of the artifacts once mocked as peak “millennial cringe” are being reappraised in an age of polycrisis, hyper-mediation, and political polarization.