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hat’s up with Wordle? ton-Bridges. “Love it,” says Lisa Lundell Lewis. “We A couple weeks ago I’d never heard of this have an all ages family group playing then sharing insanely popular game, but then, all of a sud- on iMessage,” said Michael Stewart. den, all these Wordle pictures and scores started Pat Buckna is another player. “It’s fast and chalpopping up on my Facebook page. Intelligent peo- lenging yet a simple word game that requires some ple, busy people, people deduction to make selecI respect, were boasttions from unused letters ing about their Wordle for next guesses. It apscores and challenging peals to a word-nerd like their friends (and spousme!” he says. es) to “beat that!” Robert Hill asked his ISABELLE SOUTHCOTT After witnessing three Wordle people if they are such conversations on the kind of people who friends’ feeds, I Googled Wordle only to learn that mull it over, pull a piece of paper out and guess, Trevor Noah jumped on the Wordle bandwagon on even waiting all day to guess? Or are they like he is The Daily Show in mid-January. and ram through it within four minutes? What is Wordle? It’s a web-based puzzle that has I wonder if games like Wordle and streaming seryou guessing a five-letter word. You only get six at- vices Netflix and Amazon and Apple would have tempts to guess that word. Everyone gets the same gained such a foothold in a pre-pandemic world? I word and a new word drops at midnight each day. think not. According to a story in the New York Times in Our lives have changed. BC (Before COVID), I’d early January, the word game went from dozens attend in person meetings, social events, movies, of players to hundreds of thousands within a few coffee dates, lunch dates, and get-togethers. I’d visit months. On November 1, 2021, 90 people played. friends in their homes, and they’d come to mine. My By January 18 of this year – just two months lat- spare time wasn’t spent in front of a screen. I lived er – more than two million people played. more of my life in real time. Even celebs like Jimmy Fallon play Wordle. The other night I was having a phone visit with a Why? I wondered. What is it about Wordle that friend and as we caught up with each other, we talkmakes it so addictive? ed about the latest movies and series we’d watched Wordle isn’t just a word game one person plays on Netflix, Apple and Amazon Prime. alone. It’s a conversation starter and a chance to Half way through the conversation I caught myshow off on social media. That’s why it’s going viral. self thinking, “This is so lame.” “Don’t knock it until you try it,” said one of my When we escape too often, we stop living our own Facebook friends. So I found the link for the web- lives – we merely fill our time. based game – powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/ – and Before COVID, we spent our time differently but played. bit by bit many of us changed. Wordle is fun and I can see how it can be adIt didn’t happen overnight and it’s not all bad. dictive but I also wondered why now? It’s not like Think about the home renovations and baking you we’re at the beginning of a pandemic, locked down got done. Those extra COVID pounds you gained, in our homes. Our pre-pandemic life is still a distant and new exercise programs you tried. Oh, and the memory but most of us are going about our daily gardening! Your yard has never looked better. And business albeit in a different way. if you’re like 3.7 million Canadians, that cat or dog Maybe we are looking for another distraction. you brought home during the pandemic has added Maybe we need something else to fill time that we hours of joy and entertainment to your household. can do safely and together. Finding things to do separately isn’t easy so when I decided to hop on Facebook and ask my qathet you find something that not only challenges your peeps about Wordle. Forty-four friends weighed in, brain but is also free, well that’s a bonus. here’s what they had to say. And that’s why we Wordle. “Wordle is the sourdough of 2022,” says Kim Bar-
LAST WORDLE
What we did on our pandemic ‘holiday’
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• February 2022 • qathetliving.ca
