A Guide to Kids’ Culture for Out-of-Touch Adults: Memes of 2025
Before we consign 2025 to the dustbin of time where it belongs, let’s look back on the past year from the perspective of those who will be here even longer than us. Below is a month-by-month overview of the year, highlighting the memes, events, and ideas that shape and define Generations Z and Alpha.
January: TikTok Refugees Move to Red Note
For Generation Z, 2025 began with panic, which morphed into a unique cross-cultural experiment. In January 2025, ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, announced its intention to shut down the social network in the US. Before the shutdown (which, sadly, never happened), a wave of TikTok users migrated to RedNote, another Chinese social network previously used only in China. The result was a few weeks of completely different cultures meeting on common ground, and in a way, it was wonderful. Young people from China and the US quizzed each other about their cultures, TikTok users showed off their newly acquired Mandarin skills, and RedNote users showed off their English by parodying Donald Trump, and everyone realized that we’re not so different after all. But it was only temporary: the geopolitical drama was resolved (for now), TikTok remained open, and TikTokers largely returned to their digital homes—but hopefully, young people showed them a little compassion.
February: Takeoff of the “6-7”
Like it or not, 2025 is the year of the 6-7. This ubiquitous slang term actually originated in late 2024 with the release of Skrilla’s “Doot Doot (6 7)” YouTube video , but it took a few months for it to catch on and infiltrate schoolyards, and a few more months to become the most popular slang word of the year . As you probably already know, “6-7” doesn’t mean anything specific, it’s just a funny phrase, but even without a definition, “6-7” has a surprising staying power. Even after every parent and teacher on Earth knew what it meant, kids kept saying it . Whatever was funny about the joke stopped being funny long ago , so maybe “6-7” will die in 2026, but I wouldn’t bet on it. It seems like this is one of those jokes that will go from funny to not funny to funny again a million times before it finally dies.
March: The 80/20 Rule
In March, Netflix released the series “Adolescence,” a disturbing exploration of the inner lives of alienated young men. In the series , one teenager mentions the “80/20 rule” as a way to explain the incel/”red pill” culture that underlies the murder plot and worldview of too many real-life young people. Simply put, the 80/20 rule is an axiom stating that 80% of women are attracted to only 20% of men. Despite having virtually no basis in fact , the 80/20 rule is considered absolute truth in incel circles, and the 80/20 rule (and other “man-sphere” ideas) are spreading among the wider youth population. Understanding the prevalence of belief in the 80/20 rule is essential to understanding the specific type of misogyny that afflicts young people. Implicit in this rule is helplessness—the 80/20 rule, like other complex incel theories about male-female relationships, boils down to “it’s not my fault, and there’s nothing I can do to change my situation.” The proliferation of the 80/20 rule is an all-powerful algorithm that rewards the worst qualities in people, and victims often have too few real relationships to detect the obvious flaw in its logic.
April: Minecraft Movie
In a fragmented and fragmented media landscape, Generations Z and A share few cultural influences, but in 2025, The Minecraft Movie was a rare exception. The pre-release hype (and the “chicken rider!” memes) suggested that many young people were expecting a wryly enjoyable spectacle—something “so bad it’s good”—but The Minecraft Movie turned out to be so good it’s good, appealing to everyone: kids, teens, and parents. Bringing in Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess was a clever choice, as were the casting of Jack Black and Jason Momoa, but the real star of The Minecraft Movie is Minecraft , a video game released in 2009 that is still regularly played by some 200 million people (mostly young). The success of The Minecraft Movie (and the 2023 Super Mario Bros. Movie ) shows that Hollywood has finally figured out how to make decent video game movies.
May: “100 People vs. One Gorilla”
“Who would win in a fight to the death, one gorilla or a hundred people ?” seems like a silly question at first glance, but the more you think about it, the deeper the implications become. My first thought was: a hundred people would win, no problem, but then I thought about the overwhelming strength of an enraged gorilla, how it can literally rip off limbs and bite off faces, and the scales began to tip the other way. Regardless of your answer, the question is fascinating, and in May, the internet briefly became obsessed with this imaginary battle. More broadly, the debates, memes, and TikTok videos that spawned the gorilla question illustrate how the technologies that connect us have transformed what 20 years ago would have been an interesting hypothetical discussion between a few odd friends into a global debate and a convenient excuse to learn more about primates.
June: Steal Brains
Steal a Brainrot was released in late May 2025, and by June, every child had played it—at least 20 million of them. Steal a Brainrot is a multiplayer minigame within larger games like Roblox and Fortnite . In Brainrot, up to eight players share a single server, each with their own base. The goal is to buy “brainrot” for your base and/or steal “brainrot” from other players’ bases, while protecting your own base from thieves. The “brainrot” items themselves are objects meant to reference “Italian brainrot,” a low-quality internet meme. They vary in price and have vaguely Italian names, but are not based on real-life brainrot memes. Bottom line: good game design requires only a subtle hook to create an engaging experience.
July: The End of Fart Jokes?
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In July, teachers and parents posted videos that perhaps hint at one of the most defining cultural hallmarks of Generation Alpha: they don’t find fart jokes funny. They don’t laugh when someone farts in public. They don’t need to say, “Whoever felt it, got it.” I realize a couple of TikTok videos are far from conclusive proof, but judging by the comments and interviews with kids, it seems true and important. Generation A doesn’t seem to be trying to be tolerant or mature; they seem genuinely perplexed by the idea that anyone could find farts funny. And that’s great; they’re right. But I still feel sorry for those unfortunate fart jokes that have brought us so much joy for centuries.
August: Men showing off their abilities.
“Show-off” is another “gift” from the toxic masculinity corner of youth culture. The term is an insult hurled by young men at other young men whose tastes, hobbies, and lifestyle choices are viewed as ostentatious, aimed at gaining social approval, especially the approval of young women. Ostentatious traits include matcha lattes, Labubu toys, listening to Clairo, tote bags, and reading in public. “Show-off” is a slightly sexist term at first glance—it’s a dig at guys who like things associated with women (the horror!)—but beneath the surface, it’s similar to old slang terms like “white knight” and “virtue show.” Show-off is inherently dishonest, because no real man would read in public, so it must be fake, and why would men fake it if not to appeal to women?
September: The Tragic Story of D4vd
If young people remember any news story from 2025, it’s likely to be the one about singer D4vd . On September 8, Los Angeles police discovered a body in the trunk of an abandoned Tesla registered to 20-year-old musician David Anthony Burke, known as D4vd. The body was later identified as that of Celeste Rivas, who went missing from her Riverside home on April 5, 2024, when she was just 13 years old.
The singer’s path to fame is a typical Generation Z story. His career began with online fame, which he gained by posting Fortnite videos, but YouTube removed his content for using copyrighted music. At his mother’s suggestion, D4vd began recording original songs using free iPhone tools, which he posted on SoundCloud. The result was a record deal, an album, a couple of melancholy, dreamy songs with over 1.5 billion plays on Spotify, and a corpse in the trunk of a car.
D4vd hasn’t been charged with anything in connection with the body that was found, but neither has anyone else, so this story will likely continue until 2026.
October: Frog and Chicken Protesters in Portland
This year, young people in Portland redefined what it means to “protest.” At demonstrations against federal immigration enforcement, young people began appearing in colorful inflatable Halloween costumes. First, there was a frog guy. Then a chicken guy. Then a whole host of unicorns and other bizarre creatures. The idea, it seems, is to highlight the farce of over-policing on American streets by appearing as harmless as possible. Protesters have used absurdity to make their point since the protests began, but the instant worldwide circulation of videos from the Portland “front lines” is a relatively new phenomenon, and they really get the message across. Images of heavily armed and armored law enforcement officers making eye contact with bizarre Portlanders dressed as unicorns and pandas are far more powerful than confrontations with radicals in ski masks—it doesn’t take much thought to know whose side you’re on.
November: Quarter-Length Lightning
A quarter- zip sweater is a pullover with a zipper extending approximately a quarter of the way across the chest, and it’s becoming popular among young men, particularly black men. While not exactly “dressy,” it does look more polished than sporty clothes. More importantly, a quarter-zip is often a sign of status and ambition. Like flannel shirts in previous generations, a quarter-zip signifies membership in a certain group, the fact that one “wears a quarter-zip,” and even one’s participation in the “quarter-zip movement.”
December: Millennial Optimism
The younger generation ended the year looking back, but only a little. The trend of December was ” millennial optimism ,” a romanticization of the years leading up to 2010. Some young people imagine it as a more innocent, hopeful time that they missed out on, while many millennials, who set those trends in the 2010s, are nostalgic for their lost youth/relevance, leading both groups to post TikTok videos about “millennial optimism.” As an older person than both groups, I can confidently say that both groups are wrong for different reasons. Those who “missed out” are wrong because the period that included the 2008 recession and the election of Donald Trump wasn’t “optimistic,” while millennials think of it as a fun and wonderful time only because it was a time when millennials were young (and having a fun and wonderful time).