ANALYSIS
Not long ago, Elmo, the fuzzy red character from “Sesame Street,” asked a rather benign question on X, garnering over 212 million views, “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?”
Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?
— Elmo (@elmo) January 29, 2024
In thousands of replies, X users from all walks of life let Elmo know just exactly how things were going. “Elmo, I’m depressed and broke,” one wrote. Others told Elmo that they had been laid off or were anxious about the 2024 election.Â
“Elmo, each day the abyss we stare into grows a unique horror,” read a response posted by a prominent poet. “Our inevitable doom which once accelerated in years, or months, now accelerates in hours, even minutes.”
More than revealing a temporary uneasiness, the responses to Elmo’s questions show that people are chronically anxious; in fact, anxiety affects a third of all Americans. People carry heavy burdens. There is a crisis of hopelessness that has a stranglehold on much of humanity.
We have all experienced the feeling of increasing pressure in our chests. A pressure that feels like a heavy weight. Our shoulders tense up, and our breath becomes shakier.
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