You’re misreading me denotationally if you think I said that cringey and fashionable are the same. I used fashion as an example to argue that just because something has a reliable referent in the minds of a population at a given time, doesn’t mean it’s a property that isn’t largely content-free and determined in a fairly arbitrary and fickle way.
it’s always cringy to do something that non-subtly signals how much you’re a part of an in-group
No Lukas, that’s false. For instance, I sometimes let people know that I went to music school for 7 years and have lots of music school friends, which comes along with the (true) implication that I’m part of an in-group of musicians — an in-group that I’ve dedicated a chunk of my life to — and normally the reaction either one of disinterest, or one of interest and enthusiasm, but not cringe.
I used fashion as an example to argue that just because something has a reliable referent in the minds of a population at a given time, doesn’t mean it’s a property that isn’t largely content-free and determined in a fairly arbitrary and fickle way.
I think I understood that part.
No Lukas, that’s false. For instance, I sometimes let people know that I went to music school for 7 years and have lots of music school friends, which comes along with the (true) implication that I’m part of an in-group of musicians — an in-group that I’ve dedicated a chunk of my life to — and normally the reaction either one of disinterest, or one of interest and enthusiasm, but not cringe.
You’re right that this example doesn’t seem cringy. But if you shared a meme that said “seven ways you can tell someone went to music school” – that would be cringy.
So, my hypothesis is that cringiness is largely about signalling in-group membership in an “on the nose” way that only appeals to that in-group.
By contrast, saying “I went to music school for 7 years” is something you can make conversation with to someone who didn’t go to music school.
This pattern may not capture all instances of cringiness, but I think it captures quite a lot of it. And, like with “caring about fashion,” “caring about belonging of the in-group and bonding with other in-group members through cringiness” is an identifiable meta trait that people can pursue reliably even when the underlying signals keep changing.
But if you shared a meme that said “seven ways you can tell someone went to music school” – that would be cringy.
That wouldn’t seem cringy to me. Instead my reaction to it would be some mixture of affection and curiosity. Something like “oh I’m not part of this ingroup, but this meme is a way for them to connect over shared experiences and I can certainly relate to bonding with people through shared experiences; probably seeing this meme will make some former music school people happy and I feel glad for them. I’m curious about the kinds of unique experiences that people who went to music school had and I haven’t had, maybe this meme will help me understand some of those”.
Cringe is an emotion that really has no place on a rationality forum. The cringe should be examined first and subsequently buttressed by statements that justify the reader’s first line of defense.
You’re misreading me denotationally if you think I said that cringey and fashionable are the same. I used fashion as an example to argue that just because something has a reliable referent in the minds of a population at a given time, doesn’t mean it’s a property that isn’t largely content-free and determined in a fairly arbitrary and fickle way.
No Lukas, that’s false. For instance, I sometimes let people know that I went to music school for 7 years and have lots of music school friends, which comes along with the (true) implication that I’m part of an in-group of musicians — an in-group that I’ve dedicated a chunk of my life to — and normally the reaction either one of disinterest, or one of interest and enthusiasm, but not cringe.
I think I understood that part.
You’re right that this example doesn’t seem cringy. But if you shared a meme that said “seven ways you can tell someone went to music school” – that would be cringy.
So, my hypothesis is that cringiness is largely about signalling in-group membership in an “on the nose” way that only appeals to that in-group.
By contrast, saying “I went to music school for 7 years” is something you can make conversation with to someone who didn’t go to music school.
This pattern may not capture all instances of cringiness, but I think it captures quite a lot of it. And, like with “caring about fashion,” “caring about belonging of the in-group and bonding with other in-group members through cringiness” is an identifiable meta trait that people can pursue reliably even when the underlying signals keep changing.
That wouldn’t seem cringy to me. Instead my reaction to it would be some mixture of affection and curiosity. Something like “oh I’m not part of this ingroup, but this meme is a way for them to connect over shared experiences and I can certainly relate to bonding with people through shared experiences; probably seeing this meme will make some former music school people happy and I feel glad for them. I’m curious about the kinds of unique experiences that people who went to music school had and I haven’t had, maybe this meme will help me understand some of those”.
Cringe is an emotion that really has no place on a rationality forum. The cringe should be examined first and subsequently buttressed by statements that justify the reader’s first line of defense.