[ImprobableTruth]

The quill and ink at least communicates that it's about writing. The new one is so abstract that when I first looked at it I had no idea what I was even looking at, it certainly doesn't communicate "this is like word" to me. Without comparison to the previous icon, how many people do you think would understand that the bottom line is intended to be a stroke drawn by the pen?

[pembrook]

I 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.

[Dylan16807]

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.

[pseudalopex]

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.

[dpark]

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.

[mlyle]

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.