The internet has a glazing problem.
And I’m not talking about donuts.
Look, I get it, some creators glaze because they’re genuinely excited about something, whether it be a product launch, an exclusive drop, or the Nashville Hot Mozzarella Sticks from Chili’s that haunt my dreams because I can’t try them on my tiny island on the other side of the world. In these cases, justified.
But I’ve started to notice that most creators glaze because they’ve learned it is the fastest, safest way to get attention.
The strategy is simple: praise something so intensely and so theatrically that people have to stop scrolling.
It is the “literally insane,” “literally genius,” “literally changed my life” school of communication. Where the enthusiasm is loud enough that no one notices the substance is thin as your ex’s hair on the top of his head (his hairline has 3 years, max. You paid the right Etsy witch.)
None of it is literal. All of it is emotional inflation.
Glazing feels like a small, insignificant behaviour. But it's actually a window into how online authority is now manufactured.
When a creator goes overboard with praise for another founder, another product, another drop, it’s not a case of them randomly deciding to be super nice and cheerful toward someone/ something. It’s a case of them borrowing credibility.
Declaring something “next level” signals that you have the taste to recognise greatness and the proximity to speak on it. In that sense, glazing is not really about the thing at all. It is about the person doing the praising.
This is only possible because social media has collapsed the distance between expertise and, well, for lack of a better word, vibes.
In the old world, someone needed credentials to label a product innovative or a thinker brilliant. That’s why we have food critics and film critics and the like. Now a TikTok or tweet that simply sounds confident can do the same work.
We don’t examine the claims. We examine the tone. Is this person certain, excited, plugged in, adjacent to power? Overstated praise performs certainty, and certainty reads as authority. The algorithm rewards whatever feels like authority, whether or not it is grounded in anything real.
Brands have taken this logic and built entire launch strategies around it.
A fashion drop does not need genuine novelty when it can generate mystique through exaggerated emotion. A tech launch does not need breakthroughs when the copy can instruct you to feel awe.
“The moment,” “obsessed,” “game changing,” “literally unreal.” Not descriptions. Emotional commands. They tell you how to react before you’ve decided for yourself. They manufacture momentum by simulating consensus.
Creators understand the assignment.
Negativity used to drive online culture. Callouts, takedowns, snark. But audiences have caught on to this, and brands prefer creators who won’t bring them into conflict.
So, the pendulum swings toward hyperbolic positivity. Critique risks moderation. Praise guarantees reach. The safest way to stay visible is to sound constantly amazed. Like if you could read a Rottweiler's thoughts.
There is a psychological layer too.
Glazing mirrors the logic of stan culture, where devotion is a social signal and exaggeration is a form of belonging.
Saying something is “literally perfect” is essentially a badge that says you are part of the group that totally gets it, babe.
In the tech world, it's a shortcut to being perceived as someone who spots trends early. In fashion, it's a signal that you’re culturally tuned in. In both cases, praise becomes currency. Generosity is not the motive. Status is.
But like any inflationary system, the value drops quickly when everyone starts printing money.
The internet is now drowning in exaggerated language that no longer means anything.
If every drop is iconic, nothing is. If every feature is revolutionary, nothing surprises. If every creator or founder is “literally brilliant,” the word stops pointing to brilliance at all. Thus, the Great Flattening grows and extends to every facet of culture.
Audiences know this intuitively.
Most people scroll past extreme language not because it is offensive, but because it is predictable af.
The reaction has been prewritten for them.
That is the real opportunity buried under this glazing trend. The more emotional inflation spikes, the more people crave something stable. You can already see a shift toward dryness, understatement, anti-hype, and the emotional equivalent of quiet luxury.
Creators who speak plainly cut through the noise faster than the ones screaming (trust me, I’ll turn the volume all the way down on your ass.)
Brands that announce a product without forcing awe tend to build trust by accident.
It's a strange reversal where the most attention-grabbing thing is the refusal to beg for attention, huh.
Glazing will keep working though, because it's simple, legible, and algorithmically safe. But the cultural value is fading. Soon it won’t be enough to call something iconic. The audience will want proof. Or at the very least, a break from being told how to feel.
Until then, the internet keeps glazing away. Not because everything is worthy of admiration, but because admiration is the cheapest performance of belonging we have left. Just remember that not everything you see on TikTok is actually worthy of praise.
Stay sceptical out there, soldiers.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
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