by: Siyona Singhal
Humor Editor
Most students are familiar with the concept of aura points. People view simple actions, such as walking around with an open backpack, negatively, while they praise small moments like catching a falling pencil. However, aura points ultimately seem to function as another way to judge people for behaving differently and to reward conformity. As social media gains a larger role in people’s lives and conformity rules actions, society needs to reject cringe culture and promote individuality.
Cringe culture is defined as mocking “cringy” content, or videos that people deem as embarrassing and worthy of being made fun of. People put together YouTube compilations, film reaction videos, and overrun comment sections with horrible remarks shaming the creator. Throughout 2021, worldwide Google searches for the term “cringe” were at an all-time high. In fact, there is an entire subreddit dedicated to it, titled r/cringe. The page boasts over 120,000 weekly visitors and features the tagline, “When it just hurts to watch.”
People often direct cringe terms towards the LGBTQ+ community, plus-size creators, and neurodivergent influencers; simply put, people who don’t fit the bill for typical. They face so much hate and bullying that they often stop posting and have to delete all social media to escape the torment. Even after leaving the media, people create memes out of creators that get shared and are used for months or even years. One of the most prevalent examples of this was TikTokker Rizzi. Rizzi was a plus-size woman of color known for her comedic skits. In 2025, she was pushed to take her own life after relentless mocking and cyberbullying. Her story stands to show how online criticism translates into real life and leads to tragic consequences
Overall, these actions display one idea: there is one way to exist, and if you don’t conform to that way of life, you will be mocked. As time has gone on, this idea has trickled from social media into the lives of adolescents globally. Students are so scared of being called cringe that they often hold themselves back from opportunities that they want, such as joining a certain club or participating in an event. Further, peers are making fun of students who are different more and more. In the U.S., over 50% of students report being cyberbullied (an all-time high), and most of the harassment includes name-calling.
Society needs to take more action to preserve identity and agency. As trends, memes, and fads gain popularity, people’s sense of self is disappearing. However, diversity and differences in thinking are what make everyone unique.
(Sources: National Bullying Prevention Center, The Ithican, The Oracle, Vogue)