{"id":23343,"date":"2026-06-03T04:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/you-can-be-made-a-laughing-stock-to-millions-can-gen-z-escape-the-fear-of-being-cringe\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T04:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:37:26","slug":"you-can-be-made-a-laughing-stock-to-millions-can-gen-z-escape-the-fear-of-being-cringe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/you-can-be-made-a-laughing-stock-to-millions-can-gen-z-escape-the-fear-of-being-cringe\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You can be made a laughing stock to millions\u2019: can gen Z escape the fear of being cringe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the constant risk of being recorded, many young people are afraid of showing enthusiasm \u2013 let alone doing something so potentially embarrassing as dancing in public. Is there a way to set themselves free?<\/p>\n

In a video<\/a> posted to TikTok, where Katie Whitney has 2.5 million followers, she says to camera, bluntly: \u201cThis video is for Cynthia Erivo. If you\u2019re not Cynthia Erivo \u2026 you can keep on scrolling.\u201d Her demeanour then shifts, her voice becomes softer; more the way a person might talk to their puppy: \u201cHi Cynthia. Hi baby. Hey baby. How are you?\u201d It\u2019s toe-curling \u2013 or, in modern parlance, cringe \u2013 to watch. \u201cI feel traumatised,\u201d says one commenter. Others post photos of a stunned-looking Erivo and imagine: \u201cWhat if the Wicked star were to actually watch this video?\u201d Cringe!<\/p>\n

Now 25, but having started making this kind of content \u2013 \u201cweird skits\u201d \u2013 at 20, Whitney is part of what is known online as CringeTok, a subsection of the internet that deals in content designed to make your toes curl. It\u2019s in many ways a reaction to a fear of being \u201ccringe\u201d, which is seeping into all parts of life \u2013 from social media to classrooms to the workplace.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nWith the constant risk of being recorded, many young people are afraid of showing enthusiasm \u2013 let alone doing something so potentially embarrassing as dancing in public. Is there a way to set themselves free?
\nIn a video posted to TikTok, where Katie Whitney has 2.5 million followers, she says to camera, bluntly: \u201cThis video is for Cynthia Erivo. If you\u2019re not Cynthia Erivo \u2026 you can keep on scrolling.\u201d Her demeanour then shifts, her voice becomes softer; more the way a person might talk to their puppy: \u201cHi Cynthia. Hi baby. Hey baby. How are you?\u201d It\u2019s toe-curling \u2013 or, in modern parlance, cringe \u2013 to watch. \u201cI feel traumatised,\u201d says one commenter. Others post photos of a stunned-looking Erivo and imagine: \u201cWhat if the Wicked star were to actually watch this video?\u201d Cringe!
\nNow 25, but having started making this kind of content \u2013 \u201cweird skits\u201d \u2013 at 20, Whitney is part of what is known online as CringeTok, a subsection of the internet that deals in content designed to make your toes curl. It\u2019s in many ways a reaction to a fear of being \u201ccringe\u201d, which is seeping into all parts of life \u2013 from social media to classrooms to the workplace. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the constant risk of being recorded, many young people are afraid of showing enthusiasm \u2013 let alone doing something so potentially embarrassing as dancing in public. Is there a way to set themselves free? In a video posted to TikTok, where Katie Whitney has 2.5 million followers, she says to camera, bluntly: \u201cThis video …<\/p>\n

\u2018You can be made a laughing stock to millions\u2019: can gen Z escape the fear of being cringe?<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}