There’s a child at a basketball sport screaming “six seven” right into a digicam and one way or the other this turns into the meme that breaks academics’ brains worldwide.
Mother and father are on Reddit begging for translations. College employees are implementing bans. And each single grownup demanding a proof is lacking the purpose so spectacularly it’s virtually stunning.
Right here’s what no one desires to confess: Gen Alpha may be the neatest era but in the case of language. Not regardless of the meaningless memes. Due to them.
When that 12-year-old yelled “6 7” and went viral, we weren’t watching the demise of communication. We had been watching youngsters who’ve cracked a code about how language really works in 2025. And it’s making everybody over 25 deeply uncomfortable.
Nothing Means Every part Now
Look, earlier generations had their factor. Millennials perfected the artwork of the curated Instagram aesthetic.
Every part needed to imply one thing, ideally one thing deep and genuine. Gen Z got here alongside and demanded radical transparency, “retaining it 100,” calling out the pretend.
Then Gen Alpha confirmed up, checked out this exhausting sincerity competitors, and stated “nah”.
They’d already seen by way of sigma slang, the place youngsters claimed to be mysterious lone wolves while posting about it always on-line.
The irony was already baked in. However “6 7” simply goes additional. It doesn’t even faux to imply something. That’s all the level.
This isn’t really new, by the best way. After World Battle I, the Dada artwork motion did principally the identical factor.
Artists checked out a world that had simply slaughtered thousands and thousands over nothing and determined logic was overrated.
They made artwork that was intentionally nonsensical as a result of sense had failed them.
Gen Alpha’s doing that besides their trauma is algorithmic. They’ve grown up watching adults lose their minds over which TikTok video to imagine.
They’ve inherited a dying planet and an financial system that may’t promise them something. Meaningless memes would possibly really be the sanest response obtainable.
You’re Both In or You’re Not
@mrcoachwhitehead and that’s what which means! #fyp #foryou #teachersoftiktok #training #highschoolteacher ♬ unique sound – eazye_editz
Each slang time period carries weight, proper? When Gen Z began saying “delulu” or speaking about rizz, these phrases nonetheless did one thing. You may use them in sentences. They communicated precise concepts, even when your mum didn’t perceive them.
“6 7” doesn’t do this.
It’s pure gatekeeping, and that’s the genius of it. You both know otherwise you don’t. If it’s a must to ask, you’ve failed.
There’s no translation information that may assist you as a result of the not-knowing is the boundary.
Dr. Lauren Fairhurst informed CNN this displays our “post-truth society” the place interpretation issues greater than which means. Possibly.
However I believe she’s being too sort to the remainder of us. Gen Alpha isn’t confused about reality.
They’ve simply watched adults spend a decade arguing about goal actuality and determined the entire framework is damaged.
Why trouble with readability if you’ve seen politicians twist language into pretzels? When each model’s “genuine voice” is focus-grouped to demise? When being earnest on-line simply makes you a goal?
The understanding wink is the one trustworthy communication left.
What Academics Get Fallacious About Disruption
Faculties are banning “6 7” prefer it’s contraband. Academics name it disruptive, distracting, proof that children can’t focus anymore.
However wait. When linguist Taylor Jones talked to CNN about this, he made some extent everybody appears to be ignoring.
Each era creates slang that baffles the earlier one. “Cool” was as soon as rebellious teenager nonsense. So was “groovy.” So was actually each time period that’s now so regular we overlook it was ever bizarre.
The distinction with “6 7” is that it doesn’t wish to be understood. It’s not asking for acceptance into correct English. It’s not attempting to speak something besides “you’re not invited to this dialog.”
And truly? That takes unimaginable social intelligence.
Take into consideration what youngsters are doing once they use this phrase. They’re studying rooms. Testing boundaries. Constructing alliances. Excluding threats. These are abilities company management programs cost 1000’s to show. Gen Alpha’s studying it in break time.
Academics see disruption. What’s really taking place is youngsters navigating complicated social hierarchies in actual time, utilizing a linguistic device that adults haven’t any entry to. That’s not stupidity. That’s strategic.
Possibly Brainrot Is Self-Care
Everybody loves throwing round “brainrot” prefer it’s a prognosis. As if these youngsters are decomposing from the within as a result of they watch Skibidi Bathroom and talk in numbers.
Right here’s one other method to have a look at it.
Gen Alpha has by no means identified a world with out screens. They’ve been tracked by algorithms since earlier than they may spell “algorithm”.
They’ve watched each grownup of their life change into hooked on telephones, doomscrolling, outrage cycles. They’ve inherited local weather disaster and been informed it’s their job to repair it.
What if meaningless memes are literally wholesome?
When the world is absurd however pretends to make sense, embracing the absurdity with out pretending may be probably the most trustworthy factor you are able to do.
Analysis from Cambridge backs this up – humour capabilities as a coping mechanism for stress and nervousness. Gen Alpha didn’t invent that. They only industrialised it.
We’re calling it brainrot. They may be calling it survival.
No person’s Genuine Anymore (So Why Faux?)
Social media constructed an empire on authenticity. Influencers make thousands and thousands wanting “actual”. Manufacturers spend fortunes attempting to look “relatable”. Everybody’s performing naturalness, which creates probably the most synthetic atmosphere possible.
Gen Alpha sees it. They watched older youngsters craft excellent personas and burn out by 19. They’ve seen the despair charges that come from treating your life like content material.
They’ve watched YouTube apology movies and TikTok breakdowns and Instagram vulnerability posts that one way or the other nonetheless really feel staged.
Their response? Make it so apparent that it’s efficiency that no one can accuse you of faking.
“6 7” is efficiency artwork the place everybody’s in on the joke. There’s no pretending it means one thing deep.
No particular person attempting to be the principle character. It’s simply play. Pure, silly, meaningless play in a world that forgot how to try this.
And actually, that may be probably the most radical factor they may do.
Language Is Transferring Quicker Than Dictionaries Can Deal with
The Cambridge Dictionary not too long ago added “skibidi” and “delulu”. Precise dictionary editors checked out these phrases and determined they mattered sufficient to be official. 5 years in the past, neither phrase existed.
That’s the pace we’re working at now. Lexicographers are principally simply attempting to not fall too far behind.
However “6 7” most likely gained’t make it into any dictionary. It’ll be useless earlier than the approval course of finishes. And that’s precisely its energy.
It exists on this ephemeral house between sound and textual content, significant solely in its second, gone the second too many adults attempt to pin it down.
Language has at all times developed. However it used to take centuries for a phrase to shift which means or die out. Now it occurs in months. Gen Alpha isn’t destroying English.
They’re simply operating it on the pace their world really strikes.
The Actual Genius: Preserving One thing for Themselves
Each subculture in historical past has used language to mark boundaries. Cockney rhyming slang existed particularly to confuse outsiders.
Hip-hop vocabulary protected the tradition from appropriation, no less than for some time. Even tutorial jargon serves the identical goal – separating those that know from those that don’t.
Gen Alpha realized this sooner than anybody anticipated. They watched millennials moan about Gen Z slang, noticed how shortly every little thing received co-opted and commercialised, and determined to construct one thing extra slippery.
The “Mason 67” stereotype is proof they’re even self-aware about it. That’s a time period for a white child who overuses the phrase. They’re not simply in on the meme.
They’re commenting on being in on the meme while nonetheless being in on it. Most adults by no means obtain that degree of meta-awareness, and these are 12-year-olds doing it casually.
Why Adults Demanding Solutions Reveals Extra About Us
When mother and father and academics demand to know what “6 7” means, we’re probably not asking for a definition. We’re demanding management. The facility to decode, categorise, file away into one thing manageable.
Gen Alpha’s refusal isn’t disrespect.
It’s boundary-setting. It’s claiming house in a world the place adults monitor each click on, each put up, each message. It’s carving territory that belongs to them alone. And actually, good for them. They want one thing that’s theirs.
The genius isn’t within the phrase. It’s within the refusal. By giving adults nothing strong to seize onto, they’ve created one thing genuinely unknowable in an age the place every little thing is tracked and analysed and monetised and changed into content material.
That’s really fairly stunning if you may get previous being aggravated by it.
This Will All Be Over Quickly (And That’s High-quality)
“6 7” is already fading. One thing else will substitute it. Then one thing else after that. The cycle continues eternally or till the web collapses, whichever comes first.
Gen Alpha will develop up. They’ll change into the confused adults questioning what Gen Beta is saying. They’ll most likely be simply as baffled and aggravated. That’s how this works.
However what they’re establishing now issues. They’re proving language doesn’t must be transactional. Communication doesn’t must convey info. Generally speaking is only for connection, for play, for the pure pleasure of constructing sounds along with your mouth that create belonging.
That’s not revolutionary. People have at all times performed this. We simply forgot someplace alongside the best way, received too obsessive about effectivity and readability and ensuring every little thing serves a goal.
Gen Alpha remembers what adults forgot. Language began as sounds and gestures lengthy earlier than anybody invented grammar. Play is how people study every little thing really price understanding. The purpose isn’t at all times the purpose.
Academics will cease banning it will definitely. Mother and father will cease googling. And by then, these youngsters could have moved onto one thing new, leaving the remainder of us scrambling to catch up once more.
That’s not a bug. That’s the design. The youngsters are nice. Higher than nice. They’re sharper than we give them credit score for, and our confusion is proof the technique’s working completely.
Possibly as a substitute of attempting to grasp “6 7”, we should always ask why we have to perceive it so badly. What are we really afraid of when youngsters create one thing we will’t management?
That query issues greater than any definition ever might.
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