By: Ellyn Mantell
While waiting for my plane to board very early one morning, I worked on my daily word exercises. Almost as invigorating as my body stretching, balance, and strengthening workout, getting my brain to exercise is another goal I take very seriously. Opening my phone to the Wordle site, I was challenged by what word would be my “starter” that day. In speaking with friends and family, I am aware that some people use the same word every day, while others switch it up…I am a “switch it up” girl who looks to the universe for my starter. Regardless of how I come to the word, my reaction is always the same…a smile when I see green and a frown when it is all gray. This morning, my starter word led me to the “word of the day” in three tries, and I felt very satisfied. Jumping up to tell Bruce of my success, I nearly yelled out the word, only to realize that I would be committing social contract suicide if anyone who had not solved the puzzle overheard. To say that Wordle now has a prominent place in our societal history is an understatement, and its popularity has spread like wildfire!
Read: Living One’s Legacy
What is it about Wordle, Waffle Game, Candy Crush, and countless others that have us absolutely consumed? For many years I never missed the Crypto Quote in the newspaper. No longer having access to it, I must find several games and puzzles to satisfy my need to regularly challenge myself. I reference my aging stage of life as my motivation, assuming that most players are on in years. However, in fact, these games are incredibly popular and important to people of all ages, including those much, much younger. Is it the competition? Or the camaraderie of so many doing the same healthy thing every day?
When my friend told me that her son and his friends invited her to a “group play” which meant all of them started with the same word each day, I thought it fantastic. A seventy-something playing “with/against” forty-somethings. The odds are that there are days when she is the big winner, having a killer vocabulary, and days when their ability to recall words easily is greater than hers.
My daughter, Alli, is a school social worker and she shared with me that the teacher of a 4th Grade summer school program did Wordle with her class each morning. This put a huge smile on my face as I envisioned the class deciding on each word they would enter. Going through my own litany of choices, I wondered if they chose words with the most frequently used letters e, s, t. Did they focus on vowels or consonants? Did they start with the same or a different word each day? And at the end of the week, did they add new words to their vocabulary? Did even one child feel empowered by a new skill they didn’t know they owned? Bravo is the five-letter word that comes to mind!
Read: The Need For Support Groups Is Greater Than Ever!
There is one more part of Wordle that continues to amaze me, and that is the social contract. Nobody ever wants to betray the word before others have had a chance to play each day. No doubt, that has to do with the fact there is only one word every 24 hours, and we are all quite obsessed with these games. In fact, Wordle is my springboard for Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Waffle Game, etc., etc., etc. Nothing replaces my Crypto Quotes, but boy, these games do keep me busy, and hopefully, my mind a little sharper when I start deciphering the new Crypto code again.