On Wednesday social media servers creaked under the combined misery of millions of heartbroken fans, as One Direction’s Zayn Malik announced he was leaving to go in a different direction.
Zayn Malik, #OneDirection and #AlwaysInOurHeartsZaynMalik were all trending worldwide on Twitter within an hour of the announcement.
A search for the phrase “IM CRYING” yielded the most pathos-drenched view of the despair, with between four and six tweets per second, most in capital letters. Some users claimed to be crying at school, others spoke movingly of crying in cars, crying in public or crying in the bathroom.
im crying in the bathroom
— el (@dukeofdoncaster) March 25, 2015
“MY.LIFE IS RUINED,” one user wailed, echoing the sentiments of many.
IS ZAYN REALLY LEAVING!??? Y'AL BETTER BE FUCKING LYING BC I HAVE TO SEE ALL 5 IN CONCERT AND IM CRYING RN I CANT
— love u zayn (@seldrewholic) March 25, 2015
Many users also changed their names to plaintive cries for Malik’s return. “Im crying right now,” one user, who had changed their name to “Zayn i love you x”, tweeted at the former boyband member.
While many fans explored the blackest pits of their despair, others reacted with anger, even hate. “IM CRYING like no srsly i hate u” said one user, who had changed their name to “f u zayn malik”.
i hate u, zayn
— fio loves ash. (@awshayes) March 25, 2015
Tumblr, too, saw a mighty wailing and gnashing of teeth. “I know your heart just got broken and shattered into a million pieces. It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to mourn this. When you love something so much, it’s the outmost horrible thing to have that taken away from you,” began one concerned post from a user who described Malik with a mohawk as her “religion”.
The post has been reblogged more than 4,000 times.
Another, more direct post read: “THE WORST DAY OF MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE. TRuLY AWFUL [sic]. I WAS MEANT TO DIE BEFORE SOMETHING THIS AWFUL HAPPENED.”
On Facebook, the fan page for One Direction is “liked” by almost 37 million people – more than the population of Canada. One hour after the post announcing Malik’s retirement from the blazing glare of boyband life had been published, it had received more than 72,000 replies.
Here, as on Twitter and Tumblr, the fan reaction was raw and abject.
“My heart is breaking into a million pecies [sic] One Direction won’t be the same without Zayn,” one fan wrote, inserting six crying face emojis and seven broken heart emojis before concluding: “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Another wrote a lengthy and confusing rant demanding Malik rescind his decision.
“THIS CAN NOT BE HAPPENING !!!! THIS IS NOT REAL !! It is a dream !!! DREAM A DAMN !!! I do not want to leave, Zayn was going and then all,” wrote the user. “WANT TO KEEP TOGETHER!”
“Do not see me as a fool’s directioner,” the post continued. “I want you to see I’m a directioner who is suffering from this. I know Zayn wants to be a normal boy of 22 years old but so what about us? We can not remain normal. We can not bear to leave. We can not follow.
“I do not want to be four guys, I want to be ONE DIRECTION.”
There were some dissenters, however. One user joined the fray to remark: “WHO GIVES A SHITTTT.”
At press time, her post had zero likes.
