we are killing creativity in online spaces the internet has gotten a lot meaner and i feel like we as a community have lost empathy and kindness for others around us. the internet allows people to hide behind screens and be anonymous which is good for privacy (for the most part) but bad for accountability creativity especially in artistic expression is so limited on the internet nowadays especially and specifically in the art community because if your art style is weird of different and unappealing to the people who view your art people leave hate comments they call your art ugly and they get others to swarm you with hate too. this is most prevalent on tiktoks art community as many people have access to tiktok and the ability to leave a comment.

sharing your opinion is great and you’re fully entitled to it but that does NOT mean you go and share it when someone didn’t ask for it especially when you’re rude about it. it’s okay to not like people’s artstyle but there’s absolutely no need to bully people into fitting your idea of appealing or good looking artwork. off that now and into my main point: with the threat of people harassing you, bullying you, in some extreme cases even doxxing you if you aren’t what they want you to be it stuffs you into a little box and tells you “if you do anything remotely considered cringe or corny you’re going to face consequences” and it restricts your creativity you begin to stop doing certain things in your art or perhaps dressing up in a way others perceive ad weird when you might’ve liked it just because you’re afraid of the backlash

“oh just turn off the computer it’s that’s simple” no it’s not that simple sure it’s just online comments and bullying at the end of that day but any form of bullying is still wrong and it can still hurt people. the main demographic of people who are impacted by cringe culture are usually young preteens to teenagers and that’s absolutely wild because you shouldn’t be sending straight up insults and death threats towards young children/teens just because you think something they’re doing is corny or odd even if you are the same age. we are in a time on the internet where bullying and low empathy is so common that it’s seen as normal to just be absolutely horrible to people under the anonymity online spaces give you as a person and this anonymity is but a blessing and a curse it allows people to say whatever they want with little to no consequences and it allows us to dehumanize people just because we can’t see nor speak with them in person face to face.

the big takeaway from all of this is please remember that your words do hurt people and it doesn’t make you cool or better than them to harass them for being a little cringe, we need people to be a little cringe cause at the end of the day it’s just harmless fun and we need to stop patronizing people who are just expressing themselves in non-harmful ways stay safe online yall and remember to be mindful of those you interact with even if you might not be able to see them they still have feelings