I’m not sure if I’m saying this to the wannabe poet or the Gen Zer or millennial whose fear of invoking cringe leaves their finger quaking over the upload button, but my message is the same.

At the beginning of April, National Poetry Month, I decided to get vulnerable. To embrace creativity and face any self-imposed or (perceived) external rejection, I’d write and post a poem as a daily exercise. 

For the past month, my journal factory exploded. And it felt incredible. 

Gen Z is afraid to be cringe. It's costing us.

The majority of my generational cohort is outright afraid to be cringe: the stomach-dropping, flinch-inducing secondhand embarrassment of someone breaking a cultural norm. In our modern memetic society, this is as much the cultural pendulum swinging the other way from the late 2000s era of quirk and individuality as it is a consequence of our social media panopticon.

For example: Cringe is when you post a picture to........

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