There won't be another Wordle Phenomenon

By: Alexandria Goodman '25

​During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was one phrase I was guaranteed to hear: “Have you done the Wordle?”. I would step into class, locker rooms, or even the dining hall and see the 5x6 black grid on everyone's phones. And it wasn’t just popular at Westminster. People around the globe seemed to be infected with Wordle hysteria. Whenever I scrolled on TikTok and browsed YouTube, I would see videos detailing the best strategies and users analyzing previous games to find the best plan for a successful Wordle run.
In a society where differences often tear people apart, it felt like Wordle brought the world together. Sure, part of this can be attributed to everyone being forced to spend their days lounging inside, but Wordle also collectively gave us something to do together. Each day, it was something new to look forward to and brought a sense of adventure in an otherwise dreary time. Would you figure out the Wordle answer was XVIII, or would you leave the website as a loser? Families, once cohesive units, turned against each other in group chats in a battle for the best Wordle streak. Friends turned down their brightness screens on laptops and phones, worried those closest to them would betray them for Wordle glory.
But as the saying goes: “all good things must come to end”. Covid restrictions lifted, and people found themselves pulled away from Wordle by the hustle of everyday life. All at once, the world seemed to grow distant again. Instead of logging onto Wordle during their free time, people went doomscrolling on their respective Instagram/Twitter/TikTok feeds. Some continued to do the daily Wordle, but the commodity of the activity was gone. If you were to ask “Have you Wordled?” to a random passerby in the hallway, the response would be “Who even does that anymore?” instead of a resounding “Yes”. There have been games that have tried to rise up to Wordle’s popularity – 2048, Hayday, Connections – but none has successfully taken the crown for themselves. 
The decline of a central pop culture has been lingering at the forefront of my mind for a while now. I’m reminded of it whenever I make an Instagram reel or movie reference, only to be met with confused faces and vice versa. The increase of choice, at least in my opinion, has made creating a central culture difficult and made the landing of cultural jokes difficult. Back in the late 20th century, when decades could be described by one thing, people did not have this much say in what they consumed. Back when the internet wasn’t a thing, people were only exposed to the top movies, artists, and bands: Spotify and Apple Music weren’t around, so people mostly heard new music on the radio, which only played popular songs. Streaming services weren’t a thing, so people had to haul themselves to a movie theater and watch whatever the theater decided to put on – usually a popular movie. The lack of choice forced people into a specific bubble, and if they wanted to get out of it, they had to intentionally find new things to do. 
You may be thinking, “Alex, isn’t that basically what social media’s algorithm does?” Social media indeed allows people to exist inside a bubble, but I would argue that these bubbles are way more personalized due to the increase in options. It is so much more accessible to create films, songs, and artwork now than it was in the late 20th century. This increase allows social media algorithms to create ultra-personalized bubbles for people instead of the general bubble that most were in back then. Sure, you may have a pop culture in your bubble, but there is absolutely no way it is reaching the same amount of people or having the same impact as pop culture back then. 
I’m not sure if the lack of pop culture is a good or bad thing. I like the fact that I can find ultra-specific genres of music or write a description of an art piece and find something that nearly matches it identically.  However, I wish that a joke made about the Bear or the Oscars would land with everyone I meet. Perhaps, those Wordle glory days are over.