If you’ve ever been sucked into the inescapable catastrophe of doom-scrolling, then chances are you’ve stumbled across cringe accounts, which dedicate their time on social media to reposting all kinds of videos for the sake of giving you second-hand embarrassment. A vast majority of these videos were made in 2020, a year I’m sure we all hate to think about. However, I’m also sure we can all remember how much fun it was to be cringe, especially during a time when all we could do was stay at home. This raises an important question: Is a 2020 TikTok comeback really so bad?

The short answer is no. 2020 was an era for people to explore who they were and how they wanted to express themselves. While being entirely dependent on the internet to stave off loneliness is less than ideal, social media was the birthplace of an accepting and creative community for people to flock to. It was a place where people allowed themselves to be vulnerable and were received by others going through the exact same thing.

Nowadays, the internet is hardly as good at shortening the distance between us as it was meant to. You could post something as innocent as honest excitement and joy, and people would still go out of their way to find something to harass, all without having to show their faces or even leave their houses. After all, the only reason we started thinking that our past actions were cringe was because other people told us they were.

Naturally, the 2020 era of the internet was far from perfect, as all things are. With people who were overjoyed to share themselves came chronic oversharing; people battling illnesses and disorders who finally felt safe to talk about their lives were unwillingly followed by a wave of people who decided to fake those very same issues in the name of clout.

That said, a revival of unashamed imagination and self-expression (ideally coupled with media literacy and healthy coping mechanisms this time) is just what the internet needs. Social media was made to bring people with all kinds of interests together, not force humanity apart because one person isn’t fond of another person’s hobby. Plus, without someone hovering over your shoulder and telling you what you’re doing is embarrassing, being cringe is actually pretty fun.