A fast-food restaurant somewhere in the United States: dozens of customers stand with their phones ready, waiting for the moment the cashier calls out order number 67. The instant it happens, the place erupts in cheers worthy of a World Cup final goal.
And it doesn’t stop there. Whenever the numbers six and seven appear together, when a teacher writes “questions 6–7” on the board, when a train announcer says “platform 6, train at 7,” or during a basketball game, the same thing happens.
It is one of the strangest and least understood trends Gen Alpha has come up with, a phrase that seems meaningless but is now heard everywhere. After it exploded across the U.S. in the summer of 2025, it spread around the world and has recently reached Israel. And when people say it “blew up,” they mean it. The phenomenon has completely taken over.
So how does it work? You say “Six-se-veeeennn!” (or in Hebrew, “shesh-shevaaa!”) while making a hand motion that matches the rhythm. The motion looks like balancing two scales, with palms facing upward and moving up and down as if weighing two options.
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One of the biggest challenges in understanding Generation Alpha
(Photo: Roman Samborskyi / Shutterstock)
What does it mean? No one really knows. Not even Google.
“Just act like them, and they’ll stop”
According to Dictionary.com, which even named “6-7” its 2025 Word of the Year, the phrase might express something “in between,” a “so-so” or “maybe” feeling, especially when paired with the hand motion that looks like juggling two choices.
For many kids and teens, though, it is simply a way to confuse adults who ask too many questions. “It’s meaningless, repetitive, and absurd. In other words, it shows all the classic signs of brainrot,” Dictionary.com explained, referring to both the slang term for mindless online content and a hit video game of the same name. “Still, it has meaning for those who use it because of the social connection it creates.”
2025 Word of the Year
Frustrated parents in Israel are not alone. According to Google Trends, “6-7” has become one of the most searched slang terms worldwide in 2025, with searches rising by hundreds of percent since summer. In the U.S., it ranked among the year’s most popular slang terms on Google.
In Australia, one mother found a creative way to deal with the “Six-se-veeeennn” craze that had taken over her home. After weeks of hearing her son shout the phrase nonstop at home, in the car, and in the yard, she decided to fight back using his own method. Every time he shouted it, she copied him just as loudly, complete with the exaggerated hand motion. The TikTok video of her doing it went viral within hours. The result was quick. The boy stopped after two days. “It was the easiest trick ever,” she wrote. “Just act like them, and they’ll stop.”
The Hebrew version
Gen Alpha is rewriting the rules of language
So where did it all begin? There are several theories. One version traces it to a short video of a basketball game where a kid shouted “Six-se-veeen!” while making the signature motion. The clip spread across TikTok within seconds.
(Six-se-veeeennn)
Another theory credits Tylen “TK” Kinney, a young player from the Overtime Elite basketball league, who popularized the phrase in his videos and became closely associated with it. Some say it started with NBA star LaMelo Ball, who happens to stand 6 feet 7 inches tall, a fact that turned into an inside joke online. Others link it to rapper Skrilla, who released the song “Doot Doot (6 7)”, which repeats the numbers over and over.
In truth, no one really invented it. It is a chain of silly moments that came together to form one massive meme.
This is not the first time Gen Alpha has changed the rules of language. In August, the Cambridge University Press added the viral term “Skibidi toilet” to its dictionary after it swept through social media.
For parents, there is probably only one solution: go with the flow. Because if one thing is certain, this will not be the last bizarre linguistic trend Gen Alpha brings to the world.