The head of MI6 had a point when he threatened to unfollow social media users who insist on sharing their successes at the word game
Where do you stand on sharing your Wordle results? In recent weeks, that innocuous little grid of yellow, green and black squares has become as much a staple of social media as pedantry and passive aggression; it is a cute little flashback to when people’s annoyance at online content peaked with seeing too many pictures of what a stranger had for breakfast.
The word-guessing game continues to grow and grow and millions of people are now playing it. One newish poll by Morning Consult suggested that as many as 14% of Americans have joined in and that 59% of players share their results, either “often” or “sometimes”. Whether people post often or sometimes, a kind of grid rage is growing. Perhaps it is the sudden influx, or the sense that people are showing off, or talking about something of little interest to others, all of which are about as standard on the internet as someone choosing My Way on Desert Island Discs. MI6 chief Richard Moore caused a minor stink last week when he tweeted that he was “thinking of unfollowing those who post their Wordle results”, which led to the double whammy of winning support from Anneka Rice and a jovial apology from GCHQ in the form of a mocked-up Wordle page.
