All posts tagged: Cringe

I’ve been dressing celebrities for the gym for a decade and this is why Gen Z are wrong to call out tight activewear as ‘cringe’

I’ve been dressing celebrities for the gym for a decade and this is why Gen Z are wrong to call out tight activewear as ‘cringe’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Has there ever been a more complex wardrobe dilemma than getting dressed for the gym? Having the right workout wear has the power to improve our confidence and our performance (we’ll take that magic please). But what we feel good in and what best supports our workouts evolves with age.  I have been styling midlife celebrities in gymwear for the past decade so I know the shapes that can be flattering and functional that can make you want to run, not walk, to the gym. Forget squeezing into anything that doesn’t move with you – this is about gymwear that supports your body, flatters your shape and still looks effortlessly chic.  From breathable fabrics to smart cuts and timeless silhouettes, the right essentials make every workout feel like a confidence boost. Whether you’re powering through spin, stretching in yoga or weight training, these are the carefully curated gymwear essentials that are perfect for your Second Act.  High Waisted Functional Leggings © Getty Images Gen Z might be side-eyeing your leggings, but when it comes to …

Gen Z Is Using AI to Have Difficult Relationship Conversations, and the Results Are Massively Cringe

Gen Z Is Using AI to Have Difficult Relationship Conversations, and the Results Are Massively Cringe

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Researchers, teachers, and mental health professionals alike have spent the past few years reeling as teens and young adults exported their brains to AI chatbots — so it should come as no surprise they’re now using the tech as a crutch to sidestep hard conversations they don’t want to have. New reporting by CNN details the troubling rise of young people using AI models like ChatGPT to step in for them during life’s delicate moments. One Yale University student identified as Patrick, for example, used ChatGPT to reject a girl he had met through some mutual friends. “Hey Emily! I hope your half-marathon went well — I’m sure you crushed it,” Patrick began. The ensuing text, six paragraphs long and chock full of ChatGPTisms, may be the perfect distillation of 21st century cringe. In it, the AI’s version of Patrick said it’d be cool to “hang out more — whether it’s just as friends or whatever it was …

Zach Braff details ‘cringe’ encounter with Michael Fassbender in Vegas nightclub

Zach Braff details ‘cringe’ encounter with Michael Fassbender in Vegas nightclub

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Zach Braff has recalled a recent encounter at a Las Vegas nightclub in which Michael Fassbender destroyed his ego by mistaking him for Dax Shepard. The Scrubs star, 50, aptly told the disheartening story on Shephard’s Armchair Expert podcast. “I was grabbed by the shoulders by Michael Fassbender,” Braff recounted of their recent interaction, adding that before he could say anything, the “very handsome” Oscar-nominated 12 Years a Slave star said, “‘I love you.’ I go, ‘Oh my God.’ He goes, ‘I love your work. I love everything that you do… The s*** you make is f***ing awesome. I wish we could work together.’” The praise initially left Braff feeling confident. “My ego is like here,” he said. At the time, the actor was with his Scrubs co-star Donald Faison, who he remembered was watching him proudly. “And then [Fassbender] goes, …

Why Fandom Discourse Feels Extra Cringe Right Now

Why Fandom Discourse Feels Extra Cringe Right Now

Published by skeptic

In late November, Emily did something she hadn’t in a very long time: she got back on Tumblr and started discussing fandom. Specifically, Heated Rivalry, the surprise Crave smash hit series about a love story between two closeted hockey players, based on a queer hockey romance series that itself started out, in part, as gay Marvel fanfiction. In the early 2010s, Emily, who requested that only her first name be used due to fears over harassment, had been a huge Tumblr user. She went from Gossip Girl fandom to Glee fandom to Sherlock fandom to bandom (an umbrella term for fans of pop punk bands) to hockey. But by the end of the decade, she, like many other ardent users of peak Tumblr, had largely migrated to Twitter. “I was in my early twenties, I was trying to move to a new city, I tried to be more of an adult about things,” Emily tells WIRED. She left fandom spaces. Then, Heated Rivalry happened, and Tumblr exploded. “Old friends that I hadn’t spoken to in …

ChatGPT Gets GPT-5.3 Instant Update With Less ‘Cringe,’ Fewer Hallucinations

ChatGPT Gets GPT-5.3 Instant Update With Less ‘Cringe,’ Fewer Hallucinations

Published by skeptic

OpenAI today updated its most popular ChatGPT model, debuting GPT-5.3 Instant. GPT-5.3 Instant is supposed to provide more accurate answers and better contextualized results when searching the web. The update also cuts down on unnecessary dead ends, caveats, and overly declarative phrasing, plus it has fewer hallucinations. According to OpenAI, it tweaked the Instant model to address complaints about tone, relevance, and conversational flow, which are issues that don’t show up in benchmarks. GPT-5.2 Instant had a “cringe” tone that could be overbearing or make unsubstantiated assumptions about user intent or emotions. The new model will have a more natural conversational style and will cut back on dramatic phrases like “Stop. Take a breath.” Users found that GPT-5.2 Instant would refuse questions it should have been able to answer, or respond in ways that felt overly cautious around sensitive topics. GPT-5.3 Instant cuts down on refusals and tones down overly defensive or moralizing preambles when answering a question. The model will no longer “over-caveat” after assuming bad intent from the user. GPT-5.3 Instant also provides …

‘A reminder of how careless I was’: from cringe cartoons to cancelled rockstars, the tattoos fans regret | Tattoos

‘A reminder of how careless I was’: from cringe cartoons to cancelled rockstars, the tattoos fans regret | Tattoos

Published by Sam Flores

On 20 February 2012, Coté Arias met Morrissey at a fan meet-up in Santiago, Chile. The former Smiths frontman signed her forearm in spiky capitalised lettering, which Coté later had traced permanently on to her skin with ink. Her years-long plan for the tattoo, which had started with her founding Morrissey’s Chilean fanclub, had worked. “Morrissey had such an impact on me growing up,” she says. “I struggled with shyness and lacked confidence for much of my life, and his lyrics helped me feel seen while transitioning into adulthood.” But in recent years, that inked signature has taken on more complicated associations for Coté. “The tattoo is very visible,” she says, “so it’s brought up many discussions regarding Morrissey’s comments.” Morrissey has publicly supported a far-right party, and made inflammatory comments about immigration, but denies allegations of racism. Coté’s experience is far from isolated: it mirrors a broader cultural reckoning happening across fan communities as people confront their changing relationship with the idols they grew up with. Olivia’s Marilyn Manson tattoo. Photograph: Courtesy of Olivia …

OpenAI’s Hardware Device Just Leaked, and You Will Cringe

OpenAI’s Hardware Device Just Leaked, and You Will Cringe

Published by José Betancourt

Stuffing an AI chatbot into a consumer electronics device and turning out with a product people actually want has proven extremely difficult. We’ve come across creepy and widely-hated pendants designed to listen to everything you say, as well as flawed AI “pins” that turned out to be a flaming dumpster fire, leading to frustration and disbelief. Now Sam Altman’s OpenAI, which recruited former Apple design lead Jony Ive to lead its own hardware effort, is gearing up to release its would-be showstopper — and alas, it doesn’t sound like it’s managed to iterate beyond “clunky gadget that pretty much does stuff your phone already does.” As The Information reports, a team of over 200 employees has been working on a smart speaker that features a built-in camera, which will recognize faces and identify objects thanks to a dose of AI. It will reportedly retail for anywhere from $200 and $300 and ship no earlier than the beginning of next year. That’s right: the best idea that the big brains at OpenAI could cook up is …

Gaming’s new coming-of-age genre embraces ‘millennial cringe’ | Games

Gaming’s new coming-of-age genre embraces ‘millennial cringe’ | Games

Published by Sam Flores

I’ve noticed an interesting micro-trend emerging in the last few years: millennial nostalgia games. Not just ones that adopt the aesthetic of Y2K gaming – think Crow Country or Fear the Spotlight’s deliberately retro PS1-style fuzzy polygons – but semi-autobiographical games specifically about the millennial experience. I’ve played three in the past year. Despelote is set in 2002 in Ecuador and is played through the eyes of a football-obsessed eight-year-old. The award-winning Consume Me is about being a teen girl battling disordered eating in the 00s. And this week I played a point-and-click adventure game about being a college student in the early 2000s. Perfect Tides: Station to Station is set in New York in 2003 – a year that is the epitome of nostalgia for the micro-generation that grew up without the internet but came of age online. It was before Facebook, before the smartphone, but firmly during the era of late-night forum browsing and instant-messenger conversations. The internet wasn’t yet a vector for mass communication, but it could still bring you together with …

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: Still wearing a cross-body bag and French-tucking your shirt? Sorry to say, your wardrobe is cringe | Fashion

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: Still wearing a cross-body bag and French-tucking your shirt? Sorry to say, your wardrobe is cringe | Fashion

Published by Sam Flores

Is your wardrobe cringe? Does it make you look out-of-touch and cause younger and cooler people to look upon you with pity? Do you really want me to answer that? Never mind, I’m going to anyway, so buckle up. Brutal honesty is very January, so I will give it to you straight. But before we get down to dissecting your wardrobe, two quick questions for you. Do you put full stops in text messages? Were you baffled by Labubus? If the answer to those two questions is yes, then I’m afraid the signs are that your wardrobe is almost certainly cringe. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Being cringe is essentially being old-fashioned, but worse. Being old-fashioned is what happens when you grow older with grace and dignity. Cringe is when you lose your touch while convincing yourself you are still down with the kids. What does a cringe wardrobe look like? French-tucking your shirt, the height of sophistication a decade ago, …

How ‘Millennial Cringe’ Became (Stomp, Clap) Cool Again

How ‘Millennial Cringe’ Became (Stomp, Clap) Cool Again

Published by Jenni Sidey

The other simple math powering this strange rehabilitation is the ages of everyone involved. In 2025, the median millennial turned 36 or 37, the point by which someone has, or should have, renounced all pretense of being a young person, especially if they’ve become a parent. You can still be stylish, hot and well-informed, but you can’t pretend you’re on the bleeding edge. Millennials who spent their late 20s and early 30s clinging to their youth had to disavow the culture of their teens and sign up to what the zoomers were into; now, at last, they can admit they did like trilbies and indie-folk all along. Paradoxically, this makes them less cringe, not more. Now millennials are too old to care about being cool, they’re cool again. It appears something of a generational ceasefire has broken out. Consider this tweet, which circulated last December like an omen for the coming year. “I would have been a great millennial,” wrote the early-20s journalist Cami Fateh. “I would work at i-D and my friends would work …