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.
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