30 Twitter Users Share The Most Embarrassing And Awkward Things They've Ever Done Or Witnessed

When it comes to embarrassing moments, whether firsthand or secondhand, it doesn't really matter. The fact of the matter is: embarrassing is embarrassing.

Naturally, most of us have more than enough awkward moments and encounters to last a lifetime (and for some of us who are particularly unfortunate, awkwardness seems to be coded into our DNA and is a permanent personality trait.) You can try all you want to pretend such things never occurred, but you'll never be as free as you are when you just blurt it out on Twitter.

Why share your horrifying, embarrassing moments with potentially millions of strangers on the Internet? The camaraderie and laughter (even at your expense) provide just enough of a dopamine hit from your brain to get past the worst of the hump and move on to bigger and better things (except, again, in the case of awkwardness being a personality trait, in which case you should consider becoming a comedian.)

People often turn to social media, especially Twitter, to share all the micro-dosed moments of their day and their innermost thoughts. As haphazard as it may seem, Twitter has provided us with a unique sense of community, making sharing our embarrassing moments with the world a little bit of fun.

1. It's a community event, apparently.

notnice_Jenn

2. A burn that was heard around the world, honestly. That's scathing.

RickyCoronaa tenor

3. How could you forget, honestly?

sewkx

4. "Excuse me, I need to evacuate."

MakVest

5. I think she has bigger issues than being spotted by her date.

s_kerekes

Susan David, PhD, a Harvard Medical School psychologist, says:

“Embarrassment is what is called a ‘self-conscious’ emotion; something that we experience in relation to others when we make a mistake or behave in a way that is against social norms or standards."

6. Modern Romance:

Marryxusami

7. He went on to see her tweet; isn't that nice?

CeciMula

8. Oooooohhhhh

dccised giphy

9. Choose your automated responses wisely, friends.

_aimaaaaan

10. Hey, we've all been there. Sort of.

kae_mah

Susan David, PhD, also says that feeling and expressing embarrassment makes people more trustworthy:

“When others see that we are embarrassed, it signals via our facial expression and the emotion itself that we care that we have transgressed expectations, that we have made a mistake, and about our actions,” she says. “Others are then more likely to trust and forgive people who care, as opposed to people who act with impunity or without any concern about their impact on others.”

11. Oh dang.

jessicaabrownnn

12. Whoopsies.

megalexandrax

13. The whole world just collectively said, "OOF."

MichelleMone giphy

14. One can only imagine just how much of an impact he must have had for the memory to last 30 years.

Bmangall20

15. I'm secondhand mortified for her.

sarbeaaaaar

Christine Harris, PhD, a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, has researched embarrassment, and she says:

"Embarrassment is pretty easy to trigger, which speaks to how powerful a force it is for almost all of us. Group living has been important to us for a long time, and even if you don't intentionally want to violate a social norm, you sometimes do. Embarrassment serves the function of immediately and strongly displaying, ‘Oops, I didn't mean to do that.'"

16. Not the pizza.

kellyblaus

17. Who do you think feels more awkward after this exchange?

TheRavenousDyke

18. Moms are the worst.

jadmev tenor

19. GPA and gpa are two different things.

anuscosgrove

20. Dentists seem to inspire a lot of embarrassing moments.

XtinaNovakovic

Psychology Today says that people with social anxiety are more prone to experience embarrassment: "They go out of their way to avoid social interactions where they might make a mistake or otherwise embarrass themselves."

Thankfully, anxiety and social anxiety don't have to go indefinitely unchecked, and there are treatment options, including therapy and medication.

21. When your mistake might get the police to pay you a visit:

hkell

22. This is why nobody tells you when there is spinach in your teeth.

Bentono10

23. Clearly, this story had one loser and two winners.

twitter

24. Scared yourself there, buddy?

geaney_

25. Semantics.

decentbirthday

Matthew Feinberg, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, used his time as a doctoral candidate to explore "the social benefits of embarrassment." Alongside social psychologists Robb Willer, PhD, and Dacher Keltner, PhD, the team discovered that "people who tended to express more outward signs of embarrassment while describing their embarrassing moments (such as tripping or passing gas in public) also reported a tendency to be more 'prosocial' — that is, kinder and more generous."

26. Another BIG OOF.

AngeBassa

27. Shorties got it bad.

FeyiCarter

28. Some people need to loosen up.

bobvulfov

29. Lookin' a bit different there, huh?

brookefraser21_

30. Remember when I said moms are the worst? I lied; kids are the worst.

autumnsays_

31. Business in the front, party in the back, for dogs.

lindsaymartin15

32. She is a gift to all humankind.

hannahkimberlee

If you're prone to embarrassment, you've probably heard something to the tune of, "chill out," and you probably didn't appreciate it. Did you also happen to know that there's a little science behind cooling down and relieving embarrassment?

Emotions linked with regret "often have a warm physical response in the body, such as blushing." So maybe next time you're embarrassed, take a chill pill... literally, and have an ice-cold glass of water.