alt Hacker NewsI think you might be post-hoc rationalizing an emotional feeling, as clearly this meme is emotionally triggering to everyones nostalgia/pessimism nerve (hence why it went viral).
I'm 100% positive more people would guess the far left icon is a text editor compared to the far right icon. Not that I like the left icon aesthetically. Both are pretty weak icons.
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Pages is a word processor. Not a text editor.
The far left icon's color gradient and Apple Pencil shape made me think it was for drawing.
It's a page layout / word processing program. I see the icon and I think "maybe text editor, maybe drawing program".
#4 or #5 are best at conveying what it is for and for being distinct from other icons.
Neither extreme looks like a real word processor. The left looks like maybe an icon for notes. The right looks like it’s for a drawing program.
Leftmost is probably a pen, rightmost is definitely a pen and specifically a fountain pen. I've never seen these icons before, and I'm trying to be the fairest I can, and I think rightmost wins at evoking "text editor". But the one exactly in the center wins by a mile. Pen on lined paper, hard to do better.