While it often feels like something unwanted, cringe can be a useful emotion. That uncomfortable instinct that something here just isn’t right is usually guiding us to avoid whatever behavior is on display for ourselves. We can only learn through experience, so exposure to examples of cringeworthiness could actually play an important role in stopping us from doing something that would lower other peoples’ opinions of us.

Of course, we’re never going to avoid those who dislike us completely, and our standing in the world isn’t everything. Still, sometimes trying to avoid cringe is also an important part of being an upstanding moral citizen. Many who are dedicated to being cringey are displaying the fact that they are the exact opposite of that. There are categories of cringe that are more harmless, too, but sometimes they are even worse thanks to how they unsettle us for no apparent reason. Yet here we are, ready for another dose of it.