The wilted rose emoji is the new broken heart emoji, a new study about why the so-called “unhappiness hump” of midlife is shifting, and the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. But first:
Song of the Week – “back to friends” – sombr
Is it possible to go backwards in terms of intimacy in a relationship? That’s the central question in “back to friends,” a song about a supposedly casual hookup that, it turns out, wasn’t quite so casual in the singer’s mind. The lyrics, the soft rock music and sombr’s droning voice give the song a feeling of deep melancholy and regret. For many teens it may feel like a perfect song for soundtracking dark autumn nights and the beginning of sweater weather, but there are also opportunities here to talk about the power of God’s design for human intimacy.
And now for our three conversations…
1. Enter: The Wilted Rose
What it is: Teens are swapping out the classic heartbreak emoji (💔) for its moodier cousin: the wilted rose (🥀).
Why it’s trending: The heartbreak emoji 💔 is apparently so overused that it’s lost its edge. For a lot of teens, it feels too basic and obvious now. That’s where 🥀 comes in. The wilted rose started as a way to say “I’m damaged, I’m heartbroken, I’m tragic,” but with a wink. It’s dramatic, a little poetic, and just different enough to feel fresh. From there, it spread into slang-heavy posts and meme-like emojipastas like, “Nah, She Got You Blushing Twin 🥀,” a playful way to call someone out for clearly catching feelings. Emojis change fast, and the rise of the wilted rose shows how even the smallest symbols can take on new meanings and spark whole trends online.
Continue the conversation: What’s one feeling that emojis can’t capture?
2. The Happiest Days of Our Lives
What it is: For many years, the “U-shaped happiness curve” was a widely replicated psychological fact. But a newly published large-scale study has found that the expectation that “well-being declines with age until middle age, then rebounds again later in life,” may be outdated.
Why it’s not all good news: We wish we could say that the change is because of global advancements in midlife happiness, and that 45 has quite simply become the new 25. But the truth is closer to 25 being the new 45. Midlife has not gotten easier—but being young has gotten a lot harder. As the study authors write, “It is apparent that the hump-shape in despair by age in the first period has been replaced by despair declining in age due to a rise in the rate of despair among younger people.” At one time, growing old seemed like what happened to washed-up losers; today, it may look more like escaping to the other side of an impossible chasm. Young people are looking for what adults have—maybe more than ever before.
Continue the conversation: What’s one thing you hope will be different when you’re older?
3. Ask Them What They Saw
What it is: Teens are being inundated with footage of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, as well as other horrific violence, on their social media feeds.
Why it’s shocking—but more of the same: There’s no way to know how many people saw Charlie Kirk die. Between the moment he was shot and the moment his death was announced, at least 11 million people watched the video. Many teens reported opening TikTok or X only to have the footage at the top of their feeds, automatically playing, while others said the graphic footage was shared with them by a friend without any caution or warning. Kirk was uniquely beloved by millions of young people, which made this experience all the more upsetting, but this footage is far from an outlier. It joins the ranks of other violent, viral content—stabbings, bombings, and even livestreamed shootings—that teens are being exposed to every day.
Let’s translate this one further…
In his book Achilles in Vietnam, Veterans Affairs psychologist Jonathan Shay unpacks the psychological devastation of war and the causes of PTSD. He makes the argument that PTSD isn’t just caused by witnessing trauma, but by seeing people in authority choose not to act against evil—what he calls a “moral injury.”
War correspondent Sebastian Junger takes this research a step further. In his book Tribe, he concludes that being exposed to a traumatic event without any resilience training, and without a strong, cohesive community to help us process violence, are two strong risk factors for PTSD—stronger even than experiencing prolonged, bloody, hand-to-hand conflict. We see evidence for this theory in emerging research about drone operators and intelligence officers, who appear to experience PTSD at higher rates than other veterans.
When our kids open their social media feeds, they encounter a war zone, and they haven’t even had basic training. They are looking to those in authority to help them understand what they just saw. But instead, they often get a cacophony of competing voices and no clear answer. They get a moral injury.
I fear the moments where they witnessed violence will echo in our children’s lives far beyond this news cycle.
Our broken society makes cult heroes of deeply disturbed individuals who are controlled by evil forces and motivated by their own pain. But Proverbs 3:31 is absolutely clear that we are never to envy those who do violence, and not to choose any of their ways. His private counsel, His intimacy, His secret—lies with the upright, and we can have it. But only if we dare to make distinctions, refuse to celebrate wrongdoing no matter the circumstances, and unapologetically stand up for human life.
Continue the conversation:
- Did you see the video of Charlie Kirk being shot?
- How do you feel when you come across violence on your social media feeds?
- Why do you think violent content goes viral again and again?
For more context and nuance, check out our Roundtable podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. On your way out, here’s a quick survey of some of the rest of the cultural landscape:
- As of this past Sunday, Turning Point USA had reported 54,000 new inquiries from people wanting to start chapters of the organization Charlie Kirk helped to cofound.
- The game Borderlands 4 has been released, but it has several performance issues on gaming consoles.
- So-called “green witchcraft” is now trending, which is supposed to involve a mixture of herbalism and eco-friendly rituals.
- Apple’s iOS 26, with its new Liquid Glass design style, is now available to anyone with iPhone 11 or later.
- The new Gen Z trend of “reverse catfishing” involves deliberately underselling oneself online, in the hopes of finding a connection with someone based on more than just edited images.
Parenting together,
Kate Watson and the Axis Team
PS: Know someone who could use our conversation starters with their teens? Share the CT with a friend!