klein/11 - chronically online and collectively invested

where were you on the morning of october 23rd, 2026? 

i woke up in my tweenage bedroom, the morning after seeing j. cole with my siblings, cousin and my sister's boyfriend. as the alarm on my apple watch vibrated like an earthquake, i rolled over and grabbed my phone, opening twitter immediately as i do most mornings. i read my twitter feed in the morning like it's a newspaper, full of the freshest headlines to keep me informed of all the important things i missed whilst trying to achieve a green ring on my sleep app.

upon opening twitter on this particular friday morning, i see a tweet from a streamer that had me sitting bolt upright in bed, my mouth agape with what i was finding out…

DUDE WHAT ETHAN KLEIN HAS BEEN CHEATING ON HILA AND THAT'S WHY THERE'S A HIATUS??? IM 💀💀💀💀 https://t.co/WlLPATrA3I

— vio 🖤✨ (@viotubing) October 23, 2026

god bless the for you timeline, because i have never watched a stream from viotubing and i haven't actively watched any h3 videos/podcasts in god knows how long, but like i said in my inaugural post, my phone knows me better than i do and it knew exactly what i wanted to see when i opened my eyes at 10:31am. news of a break-up that had my timeline trawling through hours of podcast footage, looking at spotify playlists and keeping an eye on who's unfollowed who. 

what is it about public break-ups that have us dissecting the social media profiles of people who don't even know why we exist? 

jasmine weller for vice said that we enjoy the news of break-ups because it shows us that not everything is sunshine and roses. public break-ups can remind us that the relationships people share on social media aren't always as perfect as their posts make them out to be. having been on social media for way too long, i think i am a bit aware that we all curate our social media profiles to show all the best parts of our lives. it is a bit humanising to hear that everyone experiences heartbreak, no matter how much money or instagram followers you have.

daisy jones for british vogue wrote that "our preoccupation with the celeb break-up probably has much less to do with them, and a lot more to do with us," inviting us to look inwards after news of a break-up to question whether our own relationships will outlast the couples we idolise. but, i am not in a relationship so i am not too worried about whether or not my significant other will leave me.

what is it about an online couple breaking up that has me glued to my phone more than usual? 

there is a particular shift in conversation and speculation when internet personalities break up. they share waaaay more of their relationship with their audiences compared to "proper" a-list celebs (kylie and timmy, give me something please!!!) so it gives us more to analyse. we become investigators, looking at every piece of online evidence to understand what went wrong. i like to describe myself as a lover girl - i love love, and i don't feel particularly jubilant when i hear the news of a break-up, but also i really don't care for any of the parties involved in this current situation. so, why am i enjoying all the chatter and going on the h3 subreddit for the first time ever? 

at a time when we all are searching for community, a big online event such as this creates a shared experience for us to engage in. for me, the internet is my community, and events of this magnitude bring us together. especially when it's something that shook the timeline on a dramageddon scale. an event that immediately got its own nickname that will be referred back to online in months, even years, to come. 

where were you on klein/11

— tyler oakley (@tyleroakley) October 24, 2026

not only was my twitter timeline on fire with quips about klein/11, but instagram was cooking up some good memes and tiktok was providing me with all the visual recaps that i needed, because there was no way i could go back and catch up on several years worth of podcast videos. 

ultimately, this is why i care about actively engaging with internet events - everyone is talking about it and inviting others into the discussion. it makes me feel part of a collective conversation with people who have the same interest and understanding of what's going on, or are equally as chronically online as i am. i can get in on the jokes and keep up with the thrill of finding out new pieces of information. a community is formed, breaking us out of our own algorithms and connecting us together. 

one of my favourite youtube channels is Spill Sesh, who has been rounding up internet drama for me for years now. even though i don’t care for some of the new influencers who are getting cancelled, i still watch these videos and like to know what’s going on in the internet world. it means that if it comes across my feed, i have a vague idea of what's happening so i don't feel too out of the loop, but that i can jump into the conversation at any point and catch up. 

i've witnessed a lot of the modern online pop-culture events, and each time i am still amazed at how creative the internet can be for the sake of a meme or a joke, but also that it brings the internet together to comment collectively. after the hype dies down, we all go back to our own algorithms.

it's been a week since klein/11 and i am interested to see how this saga will conclude, since it has been a bit of a whirlwind, but until then, i'll keep refreshing my timeline, waiting for the next major tweet from popbase or popcrave, or some random user that i don't even follow.

the inaugural post

hello! 

welcome to my blog :) 

i have spent a lot of this year thinking about how there has been a lack of personalisation with social media, which is interesting since social media has only helped us broadcast our own lives and personalities more frequently than ever before. 

but, as we moved away from PCs and laptops, and spend more time scrolling on our for you pages, there has been a distinct lack of personality on our favourite social media apps - yes, i can add a song to my instagram page now, but i did that on my tumblr when instagram was in its infancy. yes, i have curated all my little apps to show me all the little things that i am interested in, but my "explore page" and "for you page" doesn't feel like my own little corner of the internet - it just feels like ai and big socials know more about myself than i do. and i spend a lot of time saving things that i would love to do, or getting inspired, but not actually doing anything - which probably says a lot more about myself and my affinity for procrastination but hey ho. 

actually what i looked like this time
last year when i got bangs

i used to code neopets pages and tumblr sites with my friends to truly show off my personality online. i started using the internet around in around 2008?? i think i got my first facebook account in 2009 (dont tell zuckerbrg even though he probably knows), but, i was too young for myspace and i think bebo was dying off anyways, but the internet i was introduced to allowed each user to have a space that was distinctly their own, and this is what i miss!! i loved going on to my friend's sites and seeing what songs they added to
their playlists, or what widgets they added for me to interact with. growing up watching ugly betty, confessions of a shopaholic and the devil wears prada, updating my own site felt like updating my own magazine - i actually used use my stardoll album as a magazine, which i just ended up going down a rabbit hole to try and log back in and found out i made my stardoll profile in november 2009. god, the good ol' days.

anyways, all this is to say, i miss having my own distinct site on the internet, and i have been thinking about blogging for a while to get my creative juices flowing, and also put my critical thinking and writing skills to work after doing a bachelors and a masters!! 

i hope that this blog becomes somewhere that you want to come and read about what i thought about the latest internet drama, or somewhere where i can just keep a digital record of thoughts i want to share - not a diary of sorts, as i still believe in the power of the private written word, but somewhere that i can larp as carrie bradshaw, and let you know my in-depth thoughts and analysis of the latest tiktok trends and how they actually stems from niche vine videos i used to repost. 

anyways. 'til the next one. 

laura x