In a world filled with chaos, it’s nice to come across something that is free, fun and connects you to others through a shared experience.
That’s exactly what the clever little word game Wordle has done over the last few months.
If you don’t know what Wordle is, you’re probably not on social media.
At its core, the game is nothing fancy, but it is lovely; elegant in its simplicity. More than that, it feels wholesome in a way most games these days do not. What other online game allows you to play only once each day and doesn’t try to sell you anything or charge you? Adding to the fun is that players around the world are playing the same puzzle each day and then sharing those results. Maybe it’s so lovely because Wordle is, in fact, a love story.
But it has a dark side. OK, not really, but maybe some of the players do: Are they sharing their real results, or are they faking them?
As I was sharing my results this morning, I put my phone down and the cat walked across it. Suddenly, some of my boxes were gone. I then started playing with it, and lo and behold, I was able to make my 4/6 look like a 3/6, then a 2/6 and then a perfect guess of a 1/6.
Here are my true results:

My real Wordle results.
And here’s how I was able to manipulate my results:

My manipulated Wordle results.
It turns out, the “share” feature in the game generates your results in a text format, not an image. That means it can be manipulated. Easily. You just place your cursor in the little boxes and you can erase away. Surely, I’m not the first person to figure this out.
Yes, it’s a disappointing discovery, and I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there you have it. But maybe that is also part of the beauty of the game. It relies not just on skill and a bit of luck, but also on the players being honest. Seems it’s a pretty good reflection of real life.
But the next time you’re feeling like your social media friends are a lot smarter than you are, you may want to instead wonder whether they’re truly honest.
This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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Featured Image Credit: PowerLanguage.co.uk.