How Wordle brought us back together

Once word games like Wordle and Spelling Bee became available on smartphone apps, the nature of playing word games changed.

Spelling Bee involves seven letters arranged in a circle with one letter in the middle. The objective is to build as many words as possible, always using the central letter. People tweet passionately about their answers, and such online banter is practically part of the game. This is even more so with Wordle. Created by a Brooklyn software developer, the game gives players six attempts to figure out a five-letter word every day. The New York Times purchased the game from developer Josh Wardle in February 2022, and now millions play. People constantly post their scores and the puzzles trend on social media.

Analog word games are hardly new. After all, people have long been obsessed with crossword puzzles. But when word games, such as Scrabble-derivative...