All over the internet, viral videos have people posting their proverbial Ls: travelers who get on a plane to the wrong continent, a woman whose husband packed dog food in her lunch, multiple multipart tales of heartbreak and woe. A few questions! Why is anyone putting this stuff online? Aren’t these people embarrassed?
As a rapidly aging millennial, I was only just cottoning to the horror of being “cringe,” a condition that can be triggered by anything from speaking with a slight delay when recording a video to wearing the wrong bottoms. Now, somehow, it seems like letting the world know about your failures — that you’re ignorant about a topic but happy to talk about anyways, or that you’re wildly disrespected by the people in your life — is cool, actually? Kyndall Cunningham works to create a taxonomy of shame in the modern age, parsing out what’s humiliating from what's relatable and therefore valuable.
It’s a useful primer for a confusing time. Embarrassment is complicated social currency, but right now it seems like one of the best returns on investment anyone in America can name. —Meredith Haggerty, senior editor |
