Gen Alpha Propels Wilting Rose to No. 93 Emoji, Then Starts Moving On

2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 15

Google data analyzed by the New York Times showed the wilting rose was 2025’s fastest-growing emoji and climbed to 93rd most used before its Gen Alpha cachet began to fade.
JuggTok meme accounts helped drive the surge by recasting as a fresher substitute for the “mainstream” broken heart emoji, used for sadness or mock-heartbreak.
Linguist Adam Aleksic calls it a “forced emoji” — a meaning consciously assigned to signal in-group awareness — and says even earlier favorites like the skull emoji are already losing cool status.
Attempts to replace the wilting rose with the dead battery emoji have not stuck, partly because the rose still carries an intuitive sense of something good turning bad.
Aleksic says the bigger shift may be away from emojis altogether, with stickers and reaction images gaining ground as young users keep changing codes once adults catch on.