I firmly believe that that Lolilo has a broader social meaning than merely being 4 very silly and immature teenagers who put a bunch of terrible rules on themselves. If you want to read a painfully long meta then bear with me.
It is pretty obvious that Ben has a addiction to social media. This is not at all uncommon. I am guilty of spending way too much time on it myself. The difference is that I rarely post very personal information.
There is a lure of posting personal information on the internet. People begin commenting and suddenly you are important. Even if people think you are horrible you at least matter to someone. I believe Ben has gotten to the point where he needs the internet and his “reality” show in order to feel like he even exists.
Our media is based solely on its shock value and often dehumanizes it victims. Gunge has an unconscious resemblance to a execution as each person is “condemned” for what seems to be self created problems. But the media has created a platform for every act of dehumanization until the victim is unable to separate the “public” from the “private”. The media is built upon the need for constant use in order to make money. That is why reality shows exists.
Even Peter has fallen into this trap. He posts a video right after Balth leaves. Balth posts love songs constantly which are obviously aimed at Peter. Freddie seems to be the only one who has no love of the camera. Ben is clearly obsessed with the camera and his ability to create a virtual reality. But he is coming to realize the virtual reality is worse than real life. But he has ceased to believe that he has a life outside of his fantasy. This is not an excuse but social media exploits huge character flaws and mental instability.
Lolilo is an exploitative media. Thankfully with fictional characters. But sadly real people are affected every day by cyber bullying, internet addiction and media’s dehumanization. One wonders how much of this is a symptom of the fact that Lolilo is in fact media or if it is a subtle criticism of media. Anyway I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. Perhaps all of this will be canon balled by the end.
