This is the final installment of a special edition of Lily Lines featuring comics from our archive. Subscribe to get future editions here.
Friendship and social media
It’s clear why so many people experience FOMO with social media — I’m grateful that Instagram and smartphones didn’t exist until after I graduated college.
But for me, many of my friendships have not only formed but thrived because of Instagram — especially during the past couple of years. I share a lot of my personal life on Instagram, whether it’s my herpes status or my mental health or my collage art. That vulnerability has led to really amazing things — like a radio interview I did last week, and friendships I’ve formed with people who are collage artists or herpes advocates.
Mental health and social media
Social media can be a black hole that is entirely too easy to slip into. The endless scrolling, the countless notifications, the constant news cycle — my personal vice is TikTok.
I’m constantly trying to combat this, but I still fall into being “too connected” a lot of the time. Things that have worked for me: not looking at TikTok until after work, instilling a time limit and not having any push notifications for social apps.
Body image, identity and social media
I used to follow way too many people on social media that instilled unrealistic standards of who I should be. I had to intentionally curate my feeds to not portray people living their “best life” — while looking flawless — because I didn’t want to be consuming that constantly. Now, I follow queer people, radical self-love advocates, and people who expose me to different ideas and ways of living.
Below, you will find six comics from artists investigating the role of social media in their lives. I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on social media — what is something beautiful and surprising that has happened because of it?
