Comment by trabant00 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by trabant00 | Hacker News Reader

Most of those predictions are cringe themselves:

- "Crocs" - really? The most practical footwear for certain situations? Cringe?

- "the idolatry of tech people" - great architects and engineers have been public figures from at least 2000 years ago

- "Having your first name decided by your parents" - yeah, you will just be called zx793q9f until you reach 21 /s

- "Accepting bombs in war as OK" - lasers are so much sexier /s

- "celebrities as we currently conceive of them will turn out to be a strange aberration" - again, we always had celebrities throughout history

- "Beanies and workwear. Because no one’s working. And no one’s that cold." - because looking cool is so much more important on the job /s

- "Our continued embrace of the internet" - we should go back to the telegraph /s

- "the thing that will look stupid is our gun fixation" - yeah, we'll go back to sticks and stones /s

This is where I stop not for lack of further cringe, but not to make this 2 screens long.

Dare I say, you don't know the definition of "cringe" based solely on how you justify the cringeworthiness of these items you are calling out.

Cringe is closer to second-hand embarrassment while your commentary is just being cynical and sarcastic (duh). Those reactions have very little to do with each other.

Cringe is having the audacity to wear Crocs on a summer dinner party. Cynicism is thinking everyone else is an idiot for wearing leather shoes on this particularly toasty evening.

Cringe is the feeling when people gush over Jack Ma's little wuxia short film where not only does he sing the main theme, he also goes toe to toe with Donnie Yen. Cynicism is thinking Ma must've had a spare million or so and Donnie Yen and Faye Wong must be putting a downpayment on a new yacht.

I cringe that this forum has to over-analyze what is, all things considered, a pretty lighthearted and harmless listicle. I cringe that I am writing this comment right now because why the hell do I care so much that someone on the internet does not know the difference between cringing and being skeptical. I'm soooooo embarrassed I hope I don't ever look at this thread again.

> I cringe that this forum has to over-analyze what is, all things considered, a pretty lighthearted and harmless listicle.

Agreed, that post is more cringe than anything in the OP. It’s a Friday afternoon junkfood article for goodness sake. If you find yourself adding /s a half-dozen times in an internet comment it might be time to step away, get some fresh air, and think some happy thoughts.

I can't speak for the parent commenter, but I found enough of these predictions cringeworthy, by your definition, that I ceased reading further.

> we should go back to the telegraph

AT&T is particularly useless in this regard. Might as well just be AT at this point, though their excuse is that AT&T "doesn't stand for anything anymore." Got that one right.

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