The r/cringepics subreddit is home to just over 1.5 million members. It’s a true testament to just how successful the online community really is. As it turns out, internet users really enjoy looking at cringy stuff. Or rather, silently judging them for messing up in public.
That actually makes a lot of sense. We’ve written on Bored Panda before about how judging others is a natural part of who we are as human beings. We do it for a wide range of reasons. Unfortunately, some aren’t as wholesome or beneficial as others.
"Judging others is something that we as humans do, both consciously and automatically, and there are a number of reasons why we do it. Comically, we are often told as children not to judge others and have stories shared about how judging others can mean we upset them or lose opportunities to see what really lies behind our perception," a psychologist explained to Bored Panda during an interview a while ago.
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"Sometimes, we judge others to feel superior ourselves, finding faults in others, highlighting them, and feeling better about ourselves in the process. Sometimes, we use it to work out where we fit in, recognizing how we want to be, where our aspirations lie, and how we don't want to become," the psychologist explained.
"Sometimes, it's in response to our own flaws, and we attack others for what we don't like or don't see into ourselves. And on other occasions, it's to fit into a wider group who judge something or someone, and we conform and perform with the same judgment."
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However, judging others isn’t all bad. There are certain benefits and upsides when we use it mindfully.
"It can help us to set goals, find alignment with our values, it can help us to build the self-awareness of others and it can boost our self-esteem. Add to that it can also help us to make positive social choices, and it's understanding how and why we judge that gives us the ability to use it for our benefits instead of escaping our flaws or pulling others down,” the psychologist told Bored Panda before.
At the time of writing, r/cringepics had been active for over a decade. The subreddit was created all the way back in mid-October 2012. In the years since then, it has documented some of the most powerful cases of awkward and embarrassing situations that hurt to look at.
Anyone with a drop of empathy can feel the secondhand embarrassment radiating from some of these posts. We cringe because we can imagine ourselves in that person’s shoes.
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