People Are Cringing At These 50 Pics That Show New Levels Of Human Stupidity

There are few things worse than embarrassment when you're a teenager. Wearing the clothes that grown-ups are wearing is cringe. Not knowing what "gyat" or "rizz" means is, like, so cringe. Listening to old dude rock 'n' roll is beyond cringe and embarrassing. All we want as teenagers is to fit in, to be like everyone else. And anything outside of that is, unfortunately, cringe.

As we age, we're less likely to think about whether how we act, how we dress, and what things we like are cringy or not. Research shows that older adults (at least 30 years and older, according to this study) are less likely to experience events that make them feel self-conscious. The older we get, it seems, the less we care about what others think of us.

Perhaps sometimes it's better to embrace the cringe and not think so much about what other people will think. Chanté Joseph writes for Vice that the fear of being cringy can even stop us from doing serious things that can be detrimental to our health. People are too embarrassed to go to the gynecologist to get tested, to attend prostate exams, and even buy condoms.

At the heart of the problem is our confidence. The less self-assured we are and the less self-esteem we have, the easier it is for us to feel embarrassed by almost anything. A person might do cringy things, but if they're confident in what they're saying or doing, we might not immediately label them as cringy. Fake it 'til you make it, essentially.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Martha Deiros Collado told Joseph that to free yourself from the torment of cringe you must accept yourself. "All of us can be cringe at some point – absurdity is just a part of what makes us human," she pointed out. 

"If you can learn to appreciate the cringey sides of yourself, laugh at them with others and accept it's just a part of you – you're more likely to land in a place of joy and contentment than embarrassment and shame."

Some experts say that with so much of our lives being online, we're more stressed about appearing cringy. Think to yourself: how many times have you not posted something out of fear of embarrassment? "This picture is too cringe" or "People will think this quote is too cliché and embarrassing," you might've thought to yourself.

Things on the Internet stay there (mostly) forever. That's what drives our fear the most. It's not that we'll feel embarrassed in the moment, but that we'll have to look back on it and feel the cringe every single time. Psychologist Dr. Tara Quinn-Cirillo explained to HuffPost that when we make an embarrassing mistake online, it keeps us tied to our past selves. "It may not allow us the previously 'natural' transition we go through in life," she said.

When a person defends their "cringy" behavior earnestly, it's not really cringe. Long gone are the days when people were shamed for being a Star Wars nerd or playing Dungeons & Dragons. Nowadays, cringy behavior is more about people putting up a front, claiming they're cooler, better, or more intelligent than they actually are.

As Mellisa Dahl, author of Cringeworthy: How to Make the Most of Uncomfortable Situations, told Elle UK, it's about how we want to be perceived. "It's when you can sense that the version of yourself you're trying to present to the world isn't really you. When there's this gap between who you want to be and how the world actually perceives you. That is where the cringe comes in."

Is there a good side to calling out cringe other than it being a form of self-discipline? Some say that yes, a healthy dose of shame is necessary for us all. In today's society that is over-individualistic, caring about what others think might take us back to the times when community mattered, Taya Cohen, associate professor of organizational behavior and business ethics at Carnegie Mellon University, believes.

"In the past, if you wanted to fit in within your local community, you had to act in a way most people thought was appropriate," Cohen told Vox. "On the internet, a person can behave in ways that the vast majority of people find completely unacceptable, but they're getting positive feedback in the form of people sharing it." 

As long as shaming for being cringe doesn't turn into bullying, we might just be okay. We shouldn't yuck other people's yums. But perhaps we also shouldn't normalize people squeezing pineapples between their thighs and drinking the juice for online attention. 

There are heaps of examples of shame-worthy behavior in this list, too. Let us know which of these pics you deem to be the most cringeworthy and embarrassing by upvoting your favorites!