On January 29th, Elmo’s official Twitter account asked a simple question: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” Within moments, quote tweets started flooding the Sesame Street character with statements about how hard we’re struggling. Millennial culture relies maybe a bit too much on memes—we’re used to deflecting and laughing about our troubles, but that doesn’t mean we’re okay, does it? We’re also the same people who cried when Steve from Blues Clues returned after all the years away to touch base in 2022.
Are we okay?
No, we’re not. The things we’ve lived through as a generation are unfathomable when you sit down to recount it all, and this notion only factors in the collective trauma. We all have our own battles and roadblocks we cross through every day, which makes for a whole other story. It’s true that we’re also constantly dumping out all our pain on social media, disguising it with memes and relatable movie quotes, but what is it about Elmo that made January 29th such an emotional day? Is it our never-ending need for nostalgia because our childhoods were that magical?
Did we genuinely have such a memorable, enriching experience with our media that we constantly want to bring parts of it back? The reboots? The rewatches? Is it because the last four years have felt like a lifetime or because we grew up at a time when we watched social media evolve and expand into the beast that it is today? I’m no professional in this regard, so I can’t make any sort of assessment or form a cohesive study that’ll suffice for an article, but I think I can speak on why it matters to me.
Our childhoods were blessings. I know that now more than ever, watching from the comfort of my own home while children in Artsakh and Gaza are displaced as their lands are colonized and their people are slain. I grew up in a good home surrounded by a lot of love, and even though there’s a lot of trauma tethered to my time at school, the media I consumed was always my safe escape—the escape that became a massive part of who I am. Maybe a lot of us did too. Those of us who became journalists because we adore TV and film more than anything.
I have loved movies and TV for as long as I can remember, and even if I didn’t realize it then, I understand now that it’s because I found a home in those fictional worlds. Recess was always better at Third School Elementary than at mine. The Muppets never failed to make me laugh. I clung to my little Elmo toy longer than I maybe should have. Blues Clues, Franklin, Little Bear, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Gargoyles, etc.—these shows shaped so much of who I chose to become, sprinkling into my life the same level of empathy my family did and inspiring me to be better, even if the world didn’t always deserve that.
Blue and Steve asked us how we were. Elmo asked us how we were. And then, one day, it all sort of stopped while we continued to spiral into our dark thoughts while our anxieties and depression started taking control of the light in our lives. I often say that everything I do, I do it for the little girl who ate crackers by herself at recess. I write to make her proud and choose to be an open, welcoming person so no one ever feels the way she did. So maybe that’s why Elmo checking forced such a visceral, palpable reaction from all of us.
For a moment, I saw her flash before me again, and then it sort of became abundantly clear that it’s because it’s deeply heartbreaking that people don’t check in as often as we should. I have friends I talk to daily; we check in on each other, but so many people in the world don’t experience this. Someone somewhere is desperately waiting for a “Hey, how are you doing?” text.
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We let our mundane, busy lives rule us so intensely that we forget that this is the kindest thing we could do for someone else. And the reminder coming from Elmo at such a tender time feels right. There’s so much to unpack regarding how a single tweet spurred so much, but it ultimately boils down to the fact that we could all use our childhood comforts as hope in a sad, dark world. We could use the reminder to check in on each other because none of us are okay, and there’s a lot more to be said about the healing we still have to go through.
Do it for Elmo. Do it for the kid inside of you.