Social Media

Elmo's Mental Health Check-In

Personal Perspective: We’re here for it, but we’re gonna be real honest.

Posted February 2, 2024 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

If you didn’t know before, you know now: Elmo has social media. The lovable monster reached out to his audience via X with a question for the times:

“Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?”

Elmo is so ubiquitous that when I read his words in my head, I read them in Elmo voice. Coming from Elmo, the positive, friendly monster of cheer, “How is everybody doing?” is the question we didn’t know we needed.

Well, Elmo, let me tell you…

Fans posted memes reflecting their not-great mental state. Some wrote poetic missives to capture the particular flavor of their personal existential ennui. Others expressed that they were at or past their limit, Elmo, since you cared to ask.

Elmo’s social media managers (via Sesame Street’s X account) responded in solid 2024 form, sharing mental health resources. (Thank you!) But so many of the responses to Elmo’s check-in were so deep, so dark, it was impossible not to notice that we are in a time when sharing about our mental health with honesty crosses all boundaries, even Muppet boundaries.

This story captured me quickly as it brought together a few areas that have been of interest to me for a long time, since before we had Instagram, before Twitter became X, and before Facebook went on trial. I started writing about social media’s potential to impact mental health just about 15 years ago when social media was really just emerging. We knew that there could be negative impacts, even in those burgeoning years. As time went on, we had research that could show both positive and negative effects of social media, as well as all the ways data tracked via social media could be used to tell us, and others, about us. On the whole, the mental health community has embraced social media with one arm, knowing that it is essential to social life in this century, while poking at it via the other arm, concerned about the impact of constantly taking selfies, applying filters, and cultivating our personal brand.

But the wholesomeness of Elmo brings us back to one of the ways that social media can be used to promote mental health. Ultimately, even with all of its downsides, social media connects us.

One of the reasons that so many people responded to Elmo was because they feel connected to him. For adults, Elmo represents an easier time. So, folks were honest with Elmo and honest in a public way. Even though seeing so many hard-to-read responses was, well, hard to read, perhaps for some people the knowledge that they are not alone in their sadness, or isolation, or endless weeks of pointless tasks of adulthood is helpful (I promise, Mom, that was something I read on the internet and is not my personal opinion!).

I was touched by Elmo’s check-in and also touched by the honesty of the responses. A lot of us are not OK, and it’s important to acknowledge that.

Elmo’s follow-up post was just as important as his initial check-in:

“Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing.”

Elmo’s right: It’s important to ask a friend how they are doing. In real life, if possible.