For baby's health: should the six-seven meme be banned
They want to equate the viral phrase "six-seven", which "grew out" of a track by an American rapper and became a real nightmare for adults, to a threat to national security. Parents and teachers are also suspicious of other memes popular among alpha generation students. Whether viral phrases should be banned, why content about the USSR is popular among teenagers, and whether the brains of "memes" are rotting — in the exclusive Izvestia article.
Are children at risk of digital dementia
Teenagers shout out the popular phrase "six-seven" in any situation: when they want to annoy a teacher, to emotionally assess a friend's failure in class, or as an answer to the question "How are you?"
"The Six—seven is also spoken in situations where combinations with these numbers come across," comments Daniil Petrov, a 15—year-old Muscovite. — Or when you're being filmed, and you're like, "What should I say to the camera now? A—six-seven!" or as a joke. But this meme doesn't make any sense, that is, it's ridiculous just like that.
Meanwhile, MP Mikhail Ivanov believes that the meme phrase causes "digital dementia" in children, breaks discipline and interferes with the learning process. The parliamentarian proposes to ban the ill-fated "six-seven" at the legislative level.
Teenagers understand the concerns of the older generation, but they are skeptical about a possible ban.
— Well, it's like, for example, banning pens, because they can be used to write an obscene word, — says Daniil Petrov. — If there are students in the classroom who constantly annoy teachers, then they will annoy them in any way: just yell, swear in class, disrupt classes with meaningless questions.
Banning memes is completely impractical, because they, like political jokes, are relevant only in a specific period of time, clinical psychologist Sergey Volkov supports the position of the younger generation.
"Memes are like trends in clothing: in one season, green shades are in fashion, and in another, brown," says the expert. — But can you imagine a situation where color went out of fashion and people started walking around naked? It's the same with viral memes — one is immediately replaced by another. You can, of course, ban a joke or a group of memes, but they will be replaced by others. It's like dyeing soap.
Daniil Petrov recalls that a few years ago, the phrase "La, you're a rat" and the phrase "gone to the people" sounded from the screen. The meme held for a while, but if a teenager utters this speech construct now, he will be considered "uninvited." The same applies to the recently popular expression "Mutually!" — it's already yesterday.
"When new memes appear, no one will remember about the six-seven," the teenager believes. - And if someone remembers, they will say to him: "What kind of dinosaur are you anyway? What are you talking about?" It happens that teachers who want to be "on the wave", but do not know what is popular with teenagers right now, tell students: "Is it mutual? Yes?", and teenagers just burn out over them, because this meme is already outdated.
How long does the meme live?
Experts from the Pressindex analytical agency told Izvestia how long adults will have to grimace at the sounds of the hated numbers. Experts analyzed eight viral memes in messages in Russian from December 2025 to May 2026. The study showed that the duration of the active phase of popular jokes ranged from 23 to 137 days.
— But memes, reaching the peak of popularity, rarely disappear completely. After the initial downturn, many of them are returning to the agenda thanks to new publications, videos, and adaptations of the original joke," the agency explained.
The most popular memes of the studied period were "Fa / Votafa" — 227 thousand messages and 252.4 million potential hits, "Six-seven / 67" — 221.8 thousand messages and 35.1 million hits, as well as "It is possible. Why?" — 209.9 thousand messages and 199.6 million hits. At the same time, the record holder for life expectancy was the meme "Musya, is that you?" — 137 days of active distribution.
The agency stressed that the six-seven remained highly active for about 110 days, and its peculiarity is that it does not have a generally accepted meaning or a source event, such as "Mutual!" or "La, you're a rat."
— It originated as an absurdist TikTok trend, where the combination "six-seven" began to be used on its own. The meme exists due to recognition and repetition," the experts noted.
According to the agency's experts, some memes exist according to the model of a short burst of popularity and disappear in a few weeks. However, the most successful variants of recent months have developed according to a different pattern: after the first peak, they repeatedly returned to the information field and remained highly active for several months. This is exactly the dynamic demonstrated by the six-seven.
— On average, the active life of popular memes today is about two months. However, the most successful ones are able to hold the audience's attention for 3-4 months and periodically return to the agenda after a decline in interest. Many meme phrases and characters quickly rise from the peak of popularity to the status of an outdated joke, and the Internet audience is constantly switching to new viral formats, the study says.
Rabbit, lion and glass wool
The existence of absurd memes can be described as society's reaction to the modern world, which is unpredictable and also somewhat absurd, Sergei Volkov emphasizes.
— For example, children from the first grade are told that grades and diplomas are not important, the main thing is that the person is good, but if you do not pass the exam, you will "die a homeless man," comments the clinical psychologist. — And the phrase "You have the right to make a mistake" is complemented by another one — "Just try not to write a dictation." Or the classics: "Well, close your mouth and eat!", "Stay there, come here!". This is called "schizophrenic thinking." It is based on the opposite double messages that our world has been filled with for the last 20 years.
In order to withstand all this, you need to defend yourself somehow, for example, to be ironic about what is perplexing, the expert believes.
The top of the modern absurdity is the "wild cherry" neuromem. That's what teenagers call a rabbit with a lion's face, which supposedly no one in the Soviet Union could do without. If you believe the wits from the Internet, then "wild cherry" has a lot of purposes.: she was warm, so they warmed up against her, her grandmothers made clothes out of her wool, rode on cherries instead of cars, and she also ate glass wool.
Representatives of the older generation fall into a stupor, trying to understand why the lion and the rabbit became the symbols of the USSR for the alpha generation (from 2010 to 2024). Elizaveta Kozhushko, a producer of Movaviki video content and social media, calls neuromemes about the Soviet Union vivid examples of absurdity and grotesqueness.
— The creators of the "wild cherry" myth did not take the bear, which was "obvious" to the USSR, precisely because the meaning is not in the real Soviet symbolism, but in its ironic reinterpretation. Strange names, ridiculous animal hybrids, a fictional story — all this creates the effect of grotesque and irony," the Izvestia interlocutor comments.
The word perfectly fit the slogan from the advertisement of a famous children's brand: "For the health of the baby — che-rem-sha!" As a result, the nonsense turned into folklore: "In the Soviet Union, they ate quietly, slowly, four pencils and there was wild garlic."
—Wild cherry is a funny and funny word, that's all," says Sergey Volkov. — And the USSR was tied to it, because all our information traffic is filled with a narrative about the Soviet Union. Adults are nostalgic for the past, but for teenagers it is actually a myth — a fairytale country like Narnia or Russia of the VIII century. Kuzya, a housekeeper, lived in the USSR, Gagarin flew into space, no one had cars, but they were there, and Carlson loved jam.
The clinical psychologist believes that young people have no other idea of the Soviet Union as a real, systemic, powerful state. They are limited to a set of unrelated facts that they gleaned from online comments, terrible remakes of Soviet cartoons, and opinions "from TV."
Anyone can live in a fairytale country, but teenagers themselves are well aware that "cheremsha" is an absurdity and abstraction that has become a parody of the "lampoon" content about life in the USSR. For example, in videos in which the "olds" are nostalgic: "Do you remember how the guys and I ran through garages, melted lead, set fire to grass?" or write: "I'll show you a life hack from the USSR, how to open a can of condensed milk with a nail." From such content, modern children learned the old prices for bread, milk, subway fare and ice cream, and also make the "discovery" that preschoolers themselves walked in the yard, and Soviet people covered the window slits with newspapers before the cold snap.
"And then someone thought of searching for such facts with the help of artificial intelligence,— explains Daniil Petrov. — The AI gave out the unreal: "Everyone in the USSR had their own wild garlic." This is humor, abstraction, a parody of those videos that were filmed about the Soviet Union. Its purpose is to bring everything to the point of absurdity in a way that is funny and fun.
Teenagers are looking for funny versions of a popular meme online with interest. For example, that Petrovich the plumber, when he rode on the Cheremsha, tied up the ears of an unusual animal so that they would not get into his eyes. The background is music from Soviet films.
— Of course, you don't seriously think that you've ever ridden on such a thing, but it's coolly parodied and funny," the editorial interlocutor sums up.
What is wild garlic?
In order for teenagers to clearly understand what the popular lion-faced rabbit is named after, Izvestia consulted Tatiana Nozdrina, associate professor of the Department of Bioecology and Biosafety at ROSBIOTECH University.
— Wild garlic is a wild plant of the onion genus, which is often called "wild garlic" because of its characteristic bright smell and taste, — says the expert. - Externally, it resembles the broad green leaves of the lily of the valley, which is why sometimes, when harvested on their own, people confuse wild garlic with poisonous lily of the valley or evergreen. Picking this plant in the forest without experience is quite risky.
Wild cherry grows mainly in the forest and mountainous regions of Europe, the Caucasus, Siberia and the Far East. For locals, this is not a gastronomic exotic, but a familiar seasonal product.
— Interestingly, wild garlic was really quite popular in the USSR, especially in the regions of Siberia, the Caucasus and the Far East. It was sold in the markets literally as one of the symbols of spring," says the interlocutor of the editorial office. — For many families, it was an affordable seasonal source of fresh herbs after the winter vitamin deficiency. The popularity of wild garlic in Soviet times was part of the household food culture.
Today, interest in wild garlic is growing again, Nozdrina notes. It's hard to guess what role the famous meme plays in this, but "wild garlic" is regaining popularity thanks to the trend for local products, seasonal cuisine and wild plants. Wild garlic is actively used in modern gastronomy, especially in author's and regional cuisine. It is eaten fresh, salted, pickled and even stewed, added to salads, soups, pies, meat dishes and snacks.
— Of course, there is no connection between the meme and the plant, but it is this absurdity that causes emotions and becomes the reason for the video's virality, — says Elizaveta Kozhushko.
Fathers and children
Meanwhile, the "olds" are so critical that there is already a horror story on the Internet that children's brains are "rotting" from memes. Sergey Volkov does not agree with this statement.
— There is no "digital dementia" or "brain rot" from memes. The children simply joined together in a group of interests that are in conflict with the society of "adults." And here I would like to quote the "meme" of our generation: "There has never been such a thing and here it is again." Teenagers will always form groups against the principles, ideas and values of the older generation. It's not a question of ideology or ideology, it's a question of biology," the clinical psychologist emphasizes.
At all times, schoolchildren and students went against the rules and norms established in society — they disrupted classes in schools and universities, drank when there was a massive fight against alcoholism, and panicked when formal clothing was required, he recalls. And when the world was divided into military blocs, hipster festivals attracted millions of young people.
The expert draws attention to a completely natural paradox of our time. The Zumers were required to be a successful replacement for their elders, but they withdrew from the economic system, abandoning success and a career. The alpha generation is expected to be reasonable and thorough, but they pointedly ignore complex mental constructions and conclusions. As a result, it has become a trend for older generations to disparage zoomers and alphas.
— But the problem with the thinking of the younger generation is not created by the youth, but by those who criticize them. It wasn't the Zoomers and Alpha who created the education system, economic conditions, and made political decisions," Volkov notes.
According to him, with each generation, the issue of cultural denial and the quiet nihilism of the young becomes tougher and tougher. This is not a question of the "inferiority" of a generation — it is the replacement of the old world by new generations.
— We can definitely say that so far everything is developing according to the understandable laws of society and man as a biological species. The young are struggling with the old rules, developing the world. And the old people are defending their own, created by them and previous generations. But youth will definitely win. The older generation needs to understand that it is not for them to live in the world of the alpha generation at the age of 50 and 60. Give young people space, and they will be wise enough not to die and live happily," the clinical psychologist summarizes.
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