社死shè sǐ

Social death

shè sǐ le……社死了……I want to vanish.

社死, short for 社会性死亡, “social death”, is a moment of public embarrassment so bad you want to disappear. Online it is almost always a joke about yourself.

Took off: 2020
Started in: Douban
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

Forgetting to mute your microphone in a meeting, waving back at someone who was waving at the person behind you, your phone playing music on a quiet train: all of these are 社死. A 社死现场, “scene of social death”, is the moment itself, and people post their own to make others laugh.

How people use it

It is now a normal casual word, and very common. It goes with 社恐, “socially anxious”, and 社牛, the person who feels no embarrassment at all.

亮亮

今天怎么不说话？
jīn tiān zěn me bù shuō huà?
Why so quiet today?
我在电梯里大声唱歌，门一开，全是同事
wǒ zài diàn tī lǐ dà shēng chàng gē, mén yì kāi, quán shì tóng shì
I was singing loudly in the elevator. The doors opened, and it was all my coworkers.
哈哈哈，大型社死现场
hā hā hā, dà xíng shè sǐ xiàn chǎng
Hahaha, social death on a grand scale.
我明天不想去公司了
wǒ míng tiān bù xiǎng qù gōng sī le
I don’t want to go to the office tomorrow.

More examples

开会时我忘了关麦克风，真是社死现场。
kāi huì shí wǒ wàng le guān mài kè fēng, zhēn shì shè sǐ xiàn chǎng.
I forgot to mute my mic in the meeting. Pure social death.
手机在地铁上突然大声放歌，我当场社死。
shǒu jī zài dì tiě shang tū rán dà shēng fàng gē, wǒ dāng chǎng shè sǐ.
My phone started blasting a song on the subway. I died right there.

For the word itself and how to reply to it, see 社死 in the slang dictionary.

Where it came from

“Social death” is an old term in sociology for people cut off from society. The internet version is much lighter. It spread in 2020. The usual account traces it to a Douban group of that name, which formed in April 2020 and where members posted their most embarrassing moments. Other sources give other first uses.

The Shanghai paper 语言文字周报 put 社会性死亡 on its list of the ten most popular internet phrases of 2020.

The original. There is no single image. People post their own stories under the tag 社死现场. Sina reported the 2020 list. Sina (in Chinese)