When the earliest Homo Sapiens began roaming the Earth, the development of embarrassment played an important evolutionary function in the way we act socially. It showed an element of submission, so as to avoid an aggressive reaction on the part of the embarrassing person, and it was meant to regulate social behaviors so that said person learned their lesson to not do it again.

This system may not have been perfect, but it sort of kept things ticking over in terms of how we understood what was and wasn’t socially acceptable. Then the internet happened, and the whole thing got completely thrown out the window. Cringe isn’t something that we try to avoid — at least, not when it comes to other people. Instead, we can’t get enough of the foolish antics that we are regularly presented with on social media. Watching a car crash in slow motion should not be as fun as this, yet here we are.