By now, you’ve either played Wordle and become obsessed with those precious green squares, or you’ve been living under a rock. For those of you that are guzzling up the site’s daily puzzles as if they bestow life itself, I think I know why — and it’s not just because it’s fun as fuck.
For those of you not at the forefront of culture (rip), Wordle is a puzzle game that’s gone viral in recent weeks because of its addictive daily puzzle.
Basically, you guess a random five-letter word in six takes or less, and the words can be anything. Once you’ve entered your guess, the puzzle will tell you how close you are to guessing correctly through colour coded letters.
If one of the letters from your word is green, it means it’s in today’s word and also in the correct spot. If the letter turns yellow, it’s in the word but in the wrong spot. If the letter turns grey, then it’s not in the word at all. You keep guessing to get more information until you guess the word correctly. And when you finally do, there’s an option to share it straight to Twitter so you can discuss your results.
Here’s the first Wordle game I played, just so you can visualise it if you haven’t played before.
It’s a pretty simple game that you pick up immediately once you’ve played it, and if the recent hype is anything to go by, the game is also addictive AF. But what I find most fun about it is not just the dopamine hit my smooth brain gets every time I get a green square — it’s the culture of chatter that comes with it, at a time where it’s hard to be on the same wavelength as anyone else.
These days I am a shell of my former self when it comes to socialising. I’m tired, I’m irritable, I’m burnt out from existing in survival mode 24/7. But give me my silly little world game and I’m a happy little clam, chasing my green squares and connecting with other people effortlessly.
https://twitter.com/AriannaBlank/status/1485626486031851528?s=20
With the news cycle always changing, it’s a struggle to have a consistent topic of conversation that a) never gets old and b) isn’t emotionally exhausting or politically loaded. Even outside the news, most TV shows are uploaded to streaming sites in one go rather than weekly, and so everyone is always watching things at different times.
Pair that with a pandemic and a shadow lockdown, and we’re either lonely as fuck, late to the party, or just too tired to discuss current affairs.
So when it comes to Wordle, which is not only incredibly entertaining while still remaining easy and low-stakes, but super current because of its daily format, suddenly I have both a hobby and a community to connect with.
With everyone playing the same puzzle every day, it both gives us something to do *and* a topic to discuss with others, which is also fun and relatable with no emotional labour.
Do we just love Wordle? Or do we love sharing something with others? Human connection feels pretty good imo.
