Dancing to the track Toxis captured social networks. What is known about the new trend

A new trend is rapidly gaining popularity on social networks — users are massively creating videos with dancing to the viral fragment of the track Nobody by Russian rapper Toxis. This trend affects not only adults, but also children — parents make AI videos with their children, including infants, and post the footage to the public. The videos are gaining millions of views, causing both emotion and debate about how safe such behavior is. What psychologists say about this is in the Izvestia article.

Who is Toxis and what is his hit song about?

The song, which became the soundtrack to a new viral trend, appeared in 2025. The track Nobody was recorded by producer Aarne together with rappers Toxis and Big Baby Tape. Despite the participation of famous artists, the song did not immediately gain popularity and remained within the fan community for some time.

The situation changed a few months later, when Toxis (real name — Andrey Smelyansky) performed a fragment of the track during the stream. The video was shot in a simple home environment without staging or editing, which gave it the effect of "its own" content. The audience was particularly attracted by the artist's movements — intentionally simple, slightly awkward and repetitive, which made them easily recognizable and reproducible.

It was this short excerpt with a rhythmic and looping line that quickly went viral on social media. It turned out to be convenient for the short video format — all due to the fact that it is easy to remember, does not require full listening to the track and fits well into any visual series.

The meaning of the song, built around the theme of obsessive relationships and emotional dependence, has practically lost its meaning within the framework of the trend. Users have started using sound out of context, turning it into a versatile tool for memes, jokes, and visual experiments.

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How did the trend with AI dancing come about?

The trend began with the activity of Toxis on Telegram, where he posted short videos with his own dances. These videos set the stage for a future trend, and the characteristic movements quickly became a template. Initially, users repeated the movements of the 22-year-old artist on their own, but soon social networks were flooded with videos generated by neural networks.

AI dancing to the song Toxis is now one of the most popular viral trends of 2026, especially on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) and YouTube Shorts. Often, not only users themselves act as "performers", but also their relatives, cartoon characters, fictional characters, and even children and pets.

Why dancing to Toxis is gaining popularity

Experts note that AI dancing to the track Toxis turned out to be a convenient and versatile format for short videos. They combine several elements that work well in social media algorithms: catchy music, visual dynamics, light humor, and the effect of participation. The user does not need to come up with a complex scenario — it is enough to integrate into an existing template to get a response from the audience.

Unlike classical dance challenges, neither skills nor filming equipment are required here. Just one photo and a basic animation app are enough. As a result, the trend is being picked up not only by active users of social networks, but also by those who have not created video content before.

The Network has already published instructions on how to make videos using neural networks for a viral track. Users are given detailed instructions on which apps and services to use, how to upload a photo, select animations, and synchronize movements with music.

What do psychologists say about the new trend?

Yulia Karandina, a family psychologist, notes in a commentary to Izvestia that the popularity of AI dancing fits into the general trends of digital culture dictated by modern social networks and mass media. According to her, such videos serve an entertainment function, allowing you to distract from the daily routine and reduce stress, but their impact is not limited to this.

"On the one hand, the videos are entertaining, on the other, few people think about the meanings of the lyrics to which these videos are made. Very often they are destructive in nature, through the imposition of negative psychological attitudes," she explains.

The psychologist also draws attention to the broader context. According to her, the development of digital technologies has led to the fact that society is faced with the problem of the authenticity of news, video and audio materials, as a result, many mass media began to label such content as "created with the help of AI."

"Neural networks allow you to create almost any visual images that may be indistinguishable from authentic ones. But receiving an endless stream of AI content makes it harder for people, especially those with certain psychological predispositions, to perceive reality. As a result, the line between the real and the generated world may blur for some of the audience, which complicates the perception of information and decision—making," says Yulia Karandina.

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The expert notes that people who do not "sit" on tiktoks and instagrams are not characterized by such behavior and demonstrativeness as active users of these social networks. The psychologist paid special attention to the use of images of children, which become part of the mass digital content.

"Parents who use photos and videos of their children, including to create videos with AI dancing, forget about one very unpleasant aspect of the society in which their children are immersed - bullying and real bullying that can occur in educational institutions and the digital space," she said.

The psychologist also added that such materials can remain in the digital space for years, but parents often underestimate this factor, focusing only on the short-term effect of popularity.

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