The End of Cringe Culture

What is ‘Cringe Culture’?

In the past couple decades there has been a sharply increasing trend of cringe culture, especially in young people. The coinciding rise of social media has amplified the judgement and scrutiny that people place on each other’s actions and has led to anything that is deemed to be awkward, different or unique to be bullied and made fun of. 

The term ‘cringe’ describes a feeling of ‘secondhand embarrassment’ in response to something awkward and has become a social buzzword for this generation. Alongside cringe culture, there has also been a trend of being “nonchalant,” where acting cool, detached, and indifferent is seen as cool. Together, cringe and nonchalant culture have forced people to suppress their creativity and individualism to fit in. 

The Effect of ‘Cringe Culture’ in Schools

These attitudes of young people lead to major concern from teachers. New York University professor, Ocean Vuong,  commented on “The unsettling way ‘cringe culture’ holds young people back” in an interview with the ABC. He warned that  “more and more people are self-conscious of trying”. 

He also raised his concerns that students are giving in to a “surveillance culture” as they don’t want to be “perceived as having an effortful attempt at [their] dreams”. He said that “as a teacher that’s a horrifying report”. He described the students’ response to their fear of judgement to be to “perform cynicism, which can be misread, as it often is, as intelligence”. 

For him, the real issue is that  “Sincerity is something we deeply hunger for… but we are embarrassed when sincerity is in the room”. Vuong argues it is important to create environments in our classrooms where people are free to show sincerity, effort and honesty rather than hiding behind performative detachment.

Tall Poppy Syndrome

Tall poppy syndrome is a common attitude in Australia and New Zealand where people who do really well or stand out are often criticized or put down. Common insults like “tryhard” or “showoff” are used to dismiss people who chase success too openly. Instead of celebrating ambition, those who succeed often feel they need to be humble and hide their success to avoid negative attention. This connects closely to the shaming of ambition, effort and standing out seen in cringe culture.

Timothée Chalamet:Marking the End of Cringe Culture

Timothée Chalamet recently gave a speech that marked a significant moment in pushing back against cringe culture’s rejection of ambition and effort. In his acceptance speech for the Best Actor award at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards, he acknowledged that “the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role and how much this means to me.” However, he chose not to shy away from the significance and declared, “but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness… I want to be one of the greats.”

 The response to Chalamet’s speech online was overwhelmingly positive. Online viewers praised the moment, calling it refreshing to hear someone be proud of their hard work. The speech sparked widespread discussions about how many people are tired of cringe culture and are hungry for real moments such as the one from Chalamet. His words directly opposed nonchalant culture, which teaches people to act as if nothing is a big deal. 

Now people are noticing a shift where these nonchalant and performative attitudes are starting to be rejected as the norm and even made fun of. In their place, authenticity, passion, and ambition are returning to be respected across popular culture. 

This is seen in a recent social media trend, where people have realised that considering the risk of being ‘cringe’ has locked up their true selves. So now people are unleashing their true passions and personalities with the slogan “To be cringe is to be free”. 

Written by Sean Furniss