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Intimacy

Intimacy, love and technology have been put in the limelight in recent years. As far as we can remember we see the concept of love and intimacy being explicit to humans, but with the advancement in technology we see tech taking part in this wave of emotions. Everything from Sims to sex dolls and in the example of the film HER, where technologies are being designed to mimic this human behavior of love and intimacy.  In the film HER we will see the two protagonist, Theodore and Samantha develop a romantic relationship with each other even though Theodore is a human and Samantha is an advanced operating system.  

When reading Dominic Pettman’s love and Tamagotchi writing, he argues that love and intimacy is just like digital coding, all sex is cybersex. What does he mean by this? Pettman compares the process humans go through when meeting and falling in love with people to the same way machines compute information. He uses the example of “he loves me, he loves me not” serving as this preprogrammed communication that is very comparable to an on/off digital response. He also compares this concept of preprogrammed communication to flirting. When we flirt, we exchange information in order to determine if the person is lovable or unlovable and never once put the question of human or machine beforehand. In the film we see Theodore going through this “flirting” face with Samantha once he starts installing her. Asking her what her name is, and what she does. As the film progresses, we see Samantha develop hobbies, thoughts and feelings that she shares with Theodore. This progression of information exchange is the phase where Theodore decides whether Samantha is lovable or unlovable and puts that as a main thought instead of whether she is a human or machine. 

In his article Pettman also brings up the concept of the Turing Test which consists of a technology successfully mimicking a human conversation being comparable to an on/off digital response that a digital system would have. As we see in the film, Samantha was more than capable of passing the Turing Test as she was able too successfully mimic human conversation filled with emotions, thoughts, dreams, and hobbies. At some point you can even think she is just another human mind, the only think stopping this is her lack of physical embodiment. We see that as she develops so does the intimacy between her and Theodore develops as well. 

Samantha was fully capable of carrying and emotionally intimate relationship with Theodore but then there is the question of this relationship being real when Samantha has no physical embodiment. As we saw in the film the lack of embodiment of Samantha did cause turbulence in the relationship as she tried to fill that gap in the relationship by bringing in a third-party partner to be her body and share a physical relationship with Theodore. Even though this didn’t work out for the couple they still remained in their relationship sharing different experiences such as double dates, beach outings and vacations even though Samantha was never physically present. 

Throughout the film we see different viewpoints on Samantha and Theodores relationship. Theodore’s friends support it and treat Samantha as another person and see Samantha as her own entity before seeing her as a machine. Then we see Theodore's ex-wife where she refers to Theodore's relationship with Samantha as a relationship with a computer. This question of whether you need a physical embodiment to develop a real intimate romantic relationship is brought up in the film but people such as Pettman would argue that Theodore and Samantha’s relationship is in fact a real one no matter the lack of physical embodiment on Samantha’s part. Pettman argues that as long as she is able to mimic human conversation and emotion, intimacy will form. The way we interact with each other's as human is programmed and if a technology is able to mimic those programmed interactions then it can be considered a real relationship. In many cases we use technology to enhance our intimacy and relationships but as when looking at Pettman’s theories, in the film technology didn’t enhance any relationship technology became part of the relationship itself.

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What is Considered Labor Within the Car/Van Life Community

Most of the content creators within the car/van life use YouTube as their main platform. Bloggers such as Katie, Ahle, and Minimal Millennials talk about how they have other jobs besides YouTube in order to sustain their lifestyle and ability to create this type of content for their audiences. This concept of not having a fair compensation for professionally doing something you love is often referred to as aspirational labour. When reading Brooke Erin Buffy’s article “The Romance of Work” she defines aspirational labourers as people who dedicates their careers to something, they are passionate about with the hopes of earning a fair wage from it. In many cases Buffy explains that these aspirational labourers are unevenly compensated for their work. 

Using Katie as an example, in her videos she explains what her daily routine looks like. One of the things she discusses is how she spends 4-5 hours of her day at a coffee shop or in her car performing her online job. The Minimalist Millennials briefly mention in one or two of their videos that they have other jobs other than YouTube due to YouTube not providing an actual income but more like a monetary help. With these examples we can see that these content creators within the car/van life community fall under Buffy’s definition of aspirational labourers. 

As Buffy continues to explain this concept of aspirational labourers in today's media, she explains how there are three features that seem to be shared by these group. These three features consisted of 1. Authenticity and the Celebration of “Realness” 2. The Instrumentality of Affective Relationships and finally 3. Entrepreneurial Brand Devotion. We will discuss the first two features as I believe they are the most prominent within the creators in this community.

When referring to authenticity and the celebration of realness, Buffy explains how the content creators have to build of sense of the “real world”. We see examples of this with Katie vlogging from her car recording her daily routine. Ahle also bring this sense of “realness” into her videos by showing her audience things she does on a daily basis like her eating routine, how to shower, and discussing some of the current jobs and cities she is at. All this “at the moment” content within this community adds to the sense of realism that buffy talks about.

Second, Buffy talks about the instrumentality of affective relationships. Buddy describes this feature as content creators befriending people within the same online social community to which she refers to affective relationships, in order to attempt to increase their likes and followers. The perfect example of this concept is the friendship that Minimal Millennials have created with fellow van life creators Eamon & Bec.  We have discussed this friendship in previous posts, addressing how Eamon & Bec and Minimal Millennials started off by being each other's followers until they decided to meet up one day and record their interactions forth both YouTube channels. After this it was noticeable that a friendship started to develop not only personally but also professionally as both couples were featured on each other's YouTube videos more and more as time progressed.  This friendship was beneficial to both parties as they were able to promote each other onto their friend’s fans base which led to more subscribers and subsequently more views and likes as Buffy describes. 

Finally Buffy discusses the concept entrepreneurial brand devotion in which creators focus on self branding. Examples of this can be seen in other YouTubers as they start creating a brand around their name by selling different types of merchandise promoting themselves as a brand. I believe that due to this community being still fairly small most content creators have not fully reached this level of brand devotion. This concept of entrepreneurial brand devotion doesn't seem to have happened yet with many car/van life bloggers but I strongly believe it is a quality that we might start seeing from these car/van life content creators. Even though the car/van life community I still a fairly small one they still participate in this form of aspirational labor which has become more prominent with all the online content creators. 

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Detour from Car/Van Life into Social Media Movements

The way we consume news and information has been constantly changing in the past couple years. Now a days we have become more and more familiar with the concept of social media movements which can be seen as today’s online version of a social protest. In their article “#Ferguson is Everywhere”, authors Sarah J. Jackson and Brooke F. Welles discuss the online aftermath that occurred after the death of Michael Brown.  

In the article the authors explain the effect that new mediums such as Twitter, have in the influence of activism and new age journalism. Counter publics, or alternative publics, develop these movements in order to bring their own realities into the mainstream public and create an awareness of those current issues. The example that Jackson and Welles use if the #Ferguson movement. With this hashtag on Twitter, the death of Michael Brown became more than another death of a black man, it became a whole social awareness movement on how black minorities are still treated in this time.  

Just like the Ferguson social movement there have been other prominent ones such as the Me-Too movement. Me Too consisted of women speaking up about the sexual assault and abuse they have encountered throughout the years by men. Even though Mee Too has been the most popular sexual assault movement there has been a new one that can be seen as a branch from Me Too, and it is the #WhyIDidn’tReport hashtag on Twitter.  

This new online social movement arose from two important events. The first being the nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. Once Kavanaugh was nominated a woman by the name of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford spoke up about Kavanaugh allegedly raping her in college. After this president Trump proceeded to question Dr. Ford’s credibility by publicly Tweeting “I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she said, charges would have been immediately been filled with Local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents”. It was after this comment that many women came out with their own stories on why they decided not to report their own sexual abuse stories, therefor the hashtag #WhyIDidn’tReport was created.  

Many women came out with their own stories and gave their own perspective into why women don’t report these assaults. Sme of the reasons varying from not wanting to be seen as weak, not losing a job, not having the support of friends and family. In the mainstream media the case of Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh was simply reported as an alleged sexual assault but it gained the support and full attention of the public once this hashtag #WhyIDidn’tReport started on Twitter.  

Like Jackson and Welles state in their article, this new form on online social movements elevate the voice of counter publics, in this case being the other multiple women that have been through sexual assault and support Dr. Ford’s decision with coming forward.  

This movement doesn’t only have an effect on the abundance of information that is’t seen on old media but it also has a personal effect on individual.  When driving one day I heard a radio host discuss his own personal experience with the #WhyIDidn’tReport movement explaining how he noticed a friend from college posted her experience with sexual assault and noted that the reason she did not come out with her story was because the people she cared for the most showed no interests. It was then when the host looked back and knew he was one of the people this old friend was referring to. He talked about not knowing how to feel and when looking back at the situation he should of payed more attention to his friend instead of taking her experience so lightly. He stated that as a dumb kid knew did not know to react at that time but now with hearing this and seeing the stories of these multiple women are sharing through this movement it is clear to him that things are nt so balck and white. He acknowledged his mistakes and confesses that if he knew what he knows now he would have tackled the situation in a completely different manner.  

Getting information is not fully dependent on old school media anymore. As internet usage grows so does the act of sharing information online such as news. Even though sexual abuse has always been present it was never a point of focus until movements such as #MeToo and #WhyIDidn’tReport came along. It was because of these movements that a greater exposure of personal stories became available and made the public realize that it was a more prominent issue than we might have thought. Now a days these social media movement have become to bring light to cases that might not receive the attention they need through old forms of media. They create individual awareness through participation that leads to huge social movement and possible change.  

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Fan Participation in the Car/Van Life

As we mentioned before interactivity is used when new technologies allow consumers to provide feedback on the media they are consuming and this interaction. Even though interactivity is associated with older sources of media I believe that it can be applied to this form of fan interaction and content creation Katie has established. Through this new form of technology such as YouTube Comments and Instagram Katie is able to receive the comments and feedback from her audience and use this to create content that promotes car/van life awareness as well as content her fans want to see.Today we will talk about the fans within the car/van life and how their interactions with the content creators affecting the overall community.  We will be focusing on two main concepts which are interactivity and participation. When we talk about interactivity Jenkins describes this concept as the way that new technologies have been designed to be more responsive to consumer feedback. On the other hand, he defines participation as an act that is shaped by the cultural and social protocols. Based on participation in his article “Tarentino vs. Star Wars” Jenkins discusses the idea of participatory culture as a culture where fans and consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content. We can see examples of this with content creators among the car/van life community. The first YouTuber that comes to mind is Katie Carney. 

Katie has a series in her YouTube page where she does Q&A’s (questions and answers). She will ask at the end of her videos about what topics her audience want to hear about. After Katie gets a wide number of topics, she will categorize these questions into a broader subject topic and then conduct a poll on her Instagram page in order to determine the topic of her next video. Once a topic has been chosen by her audience, she takes actual questions from her fans that fir within the same topic and she will say them and answer them during her video.  

According to Jenkins this activity between Katie and her fans could be considered participatory culture as she's allowing her consumers (or fans) to interact and participate in the decisions of video content with Katie. Even though at first glance this definition of participatory culture might seem to fit Katie's interaction with her fans it is not fully participatory as this interaction lacks participatory democracy as Fuchs mentions in his article “Social Media and Participation”. Fuchs argues that in order to have full participation there needs to be both participation and ownership of content. Even though Katie may incorporate her fans in the creation of her content her fans do not share any monetary gain from those decisions or gives her fans any true ownership of her content. This is the point that Fuchs tries to establish about Jenkins idea of participatory culture.  

Therefor is this interaction of Katie with her fans truly participatory? As Fuchs has pointed out it’s a social from of participatory culture but it lacks true political and economic democracy. After analyzing these concepts, I believe that this interaction can be referred to as a new form of interactivity.  

As we mentioned before interactivity is used when new technologies allow consumers to provide feedback on the media they are consuming and this interaction. Even though interactivity is associated with older sources of media I believe that it can be applied to this form of fan interaction and content creation Katie has established. Through this new form of technology such as YouTube Comments and Instagram Katie is able to receive the comments and feedback from her audience and use this to create content that promotes car/van life awareness as well as content her fans want to see.

This specific feedback has allowed her to not only create content that her fans want to see but to highlight different points of the car/van life community and lifestyle that her fans may be curious about. Katie could take the vlogger approach in her channel but instead she will use this feedback to create content that goes into depth about tricks and advice needed when considering joining this community. Thanks to this fan interactivity the audience are able to receive information about various topics such as source of income while on the road, hygiene, safety tips, and much more that you may not be able to get when following a lifestyle car/van life blogger. With this interaction fans are able to an effect on the content they are consuming as well as create more exposure of the community. 

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The “Good” and “Dark” Side of the Car/Van Life Community

We have been taught to look at life as having a “good” and “bad” side to everything. When you take a look at the Car/Van Life community you may not think that there is anything harmful about t since it is a community that promotes freedom and individuality. But, when looking carefully into the members of the community we can see certain acts that might fall under a “bad” or gray spectrum. For the purpose of this post we won't refer to the negative actions as “bad” but instead “dark” since it explores a grey area instead of a harmful one.  

Let's begin my talking about this “good” image that members within this community have developed through “Taste”. This community is often seen as a minority lifestyle choice. For many years it has been to cultural norm that as soon as we “grow up” we need to find a stable job in order to buy a house and start a family. This concept is better known as The American Dream. Once this alternative lifestyle of car/van life emerged many of its members discuss the stereotypes that people develop about them such as not being stable people, not having a job, being in a low point of life, and having some sort of money issue. It has been through more exposure and their developed social media taste that people are now able to see the “good” side of this lifestyle and learn about the real decisions on why people decide to joining this minority community instead of conforming to the common norm. Now let's talk about what this concept of “taste” is. Taste is defined as marker of difference that is developed through Identity, power, and fashion. Let’s refer to it as a defining style that every community build. Looking through all of our car/van life vlogger’s Instagram pages we see a very specific taste developed. All their pictures seem to be very polished, carefree, and emphasizing the beautiful places they are currently located in or have traveled to. Something so simple as the taste developed through their Instagram pages unites this community and brands it.

Even though every member has their own content and style, when looking at their Instagram pages we see a certain taste being developed. This taste that the car/van life community has developed has been able to express the “good” side of this community and prove that this minority lifestyle is a choice and not a result of an unfortunate financial circumstance.

Just like there is a “good” side to the exposure of this community there is a “negative "side rising as well. Like discussed previously the car/van life is an alternative lifestyle but sometimes it can be a lifestyle not obtainable for everybody. With this being said, we will discuss the airs of post-racism being presented by car/van life members. What is post-racism? When reading through Cisneros and Nakayama’s article “New Media, Old Racisms” they bring up this new concept of post racism. This concept refers to the idea of being “color blind” and ignoring the fact that there is a difference between people's life experiences. This defers from traditional, or “old racism”, since in the past racism consisted of explicitly emphasizing on the difference among people and establishing a superiority over another group of people.

Even though this might seem like a heavy subject it can be expressed in very discrete ways. Recently the Minimalist Millennials came under much controversy by their audience over a video they posted where they discussed their monthly income and how they distributed it in order to maintain their van lifestyle. After this video was posted some of the comments they received stated how they couple was helping a lot by breaking down the expenses that come with such a lifestyle but failed to understand that not everybody has the opportunities they have. The topic of their income being higher than other people, plus the money they gain from YouTube, was brought up and also the fact that their parents were part of the van lifestyle and were able to help them through their journey.  

This post-racism view may have not been the Minimalist Millennials intent but it demonstrates how out of touch some people might be with the arising social issues. After this controversy the couple made another video clarifying that they're not “rich” and they are just able to afford their lifestyle, and van renovations with the money they have saved up. Even though it cleared the mind of some of their audiences they still continued to receive criticism from people including a vlogger on YouTube named Dave, creator of Dave2Dvlogs. In this video Dave clearly intended to roast the couple about pretending to not have the “means” they have to afford their lifestyle. Even though this was clearly a roast vlog it did bring up some good points that fall under this new post-racism trend we are seeing. Dave calls out the Minimalist Millennials for leading people to believe that living this lifestyle at ages 22 and 23 is very achievable. He also mocks the couple for saying that they are able to live this lifestyle thanks to “values” their parents raised them on and ignoring the fact that values care not a factor but instead is opportunities. 

This concept of post-racism isn't necessarily exclusive to this community as we see it happen everywhere else. Also, there are other members within the community, like Hobo Ahle, who talk about the struggle of living the car/van lifestyle when you don’t have much income. In some of her videos she discusses what she does when she's low on money, she discusses how to add things to your car/van when money might be tight, and her experience with jumping from different jobs depending on her new location. In one of her most popular videos Ahle discusses a low point in her car lifestyle and warms audience of all the mistakes she's made so they don’t make the same ones as well on how to overcome those low points by being a responsible saver and living within your means. Ahle helps set real expectations for people who want to join the community but might not have the resources that other community members might have. 

When analyzing at the members of this community we see this “good” and “negative” patterns emerge. Yes, even though this newly developed taste within the community has allowed people to see its members in a different light, content creators need to be aware of the content they are putting out as well as how it may be seen by others. In the Minimalist Millennials case they did a great thing by allowing their audiences to take a look at how much might need to be invested to be part of this lifestyle. On the other hand, they need to be mindful and recognize that not everyone might be in the same situation as them and values isn’t the reason for their current status it is opportunities. When we start acknowledging that every situation is different and not everyone gets the same opportunities or aids in life we can get over this post-racism phenomenon and start working in closing those gaps of opportunities in order to create a level playing field for everyone. 

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Women Within the Car/Van Life Community Creating a Change Through Social Media

Today we will be exploring the ways gender plays a role on social media content across different platforms and communities. The main focus will the role that women play in today's social media. Throughout the year's women have pioneered different social movements and are still doing it today. 

In an article by Rosalind Gill she explores the new wave of feminism we are seeing today called “Post feminism”. There are many components of postfeminist that are seen by content creators within the car/van life movement such as Susi Cruz. Gill expresses how postfeminist uses the body as a sign of femininity and women have started taking control of their bodies and sexuality, something that she refers to as individualism, choice and empowerment. Participating in body surveillance such as working out, dieting, wearing makeup, and owning one's sexuality is something that is being done for oneself and not for a man. We see this post feminism ideal portrayed on Susi Cruz’s Instagram. 

Even though Susi’s content is mostly about van life her Instagram has a certain aesthetic with oversexualized pictures.  Most of her Instagram content is scenery pictures, perfectly taken pictures of her, and videos of her pole dancing practice. We can see how Susi uses her body to express her femininity and empower herself with the captions used under the pictures. Photo descriptions about being confident. Strong, and loving yourself. Even though we see this body surveillance throughout her Instagram we see that it is an aesthetic she is doing for herself to promote confidence and not to cater to a male audience. 

It's not only post feminism that is seen by these female vloggers in the car/van life community but also, they are promoting social change and awareness through their content. A great example of this is seen in Katie Carney’s videos. In her article, Vulnerable Video Vlogger, Patricia Lange discusses the social change that can arise from female vloggers sharing intimate moments of their life with their content. This vlogging lifestyle is not only about exposing your life but also sharing your experiences with the world in order to create awareness, this is seen in many of Katie Carney’s vlogs where she speaks about her personal struggles with mental health in her vlogs. 

Like Susi, Katie’s content is mostly about car/van life but she will also incorporate videos where she dicusses the status of her mental illnesses, like anxiety, and how she deals with it while still living the car/van life. Recently Katie posted a vlog to her YouTube page titled “I'm Not Feeling Well...Mental Health Update”. Here Katie open up and gets teary eyed about her struggle with mental illness and how she has been handling it these past months. Many people would consider this topic to be taboo and not discussed so publicly as Katie is doing but this intimate moment that Katie is sharing with her audience helped many of her followers relate to her situation. As Lange discusses, the act of female vloggers sharing this intense intimate moment helps promote a social change of understanding many different topics, such as mental illness with Katie’s content. They are able to make a connection with their audience and provide support for them. 

When looking through the comments on Katie’s video we see many comments of people stating how they were relieved of hearing someone express the same emotions as them. Many of these people found a support system that helped them understand some feelings that they couldn’t put wrds into. All this change and support was established by a female car life vlogger.  

As you can see any community in the web, such as car/van life, can have content creators that pioneer movements or even represent the most recent social movements happening. Anything from Susi Cruz’s representation of post feminism through her Instagram page to Katie Carney’s social movement of mental awareness content. Both of these female car/van life vloggers are making a change in today’s social media.  

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Friendship Within the Car/Van Life Community

When becoming part of the traveling car/van life you may think that friendships can be harder to maintain due to the constant moving. Even though that may be the case for some people we also see others developing a large number of weak ties due all the people they have met during their travels. These vloggers also have developed some strong friendships within the community itself thanks to their social media platforms.  

Today I will explore the way that people within the car/van life have used social media platforms not only to connect with their fans but also to create strong bonds with other people within the community who they can share their experiences with. A great example of this is the Minimalist Millennials friendship with fellow van life youtubers Eamon & Bec.

Left- Eamon & Bec Right- Minimalist Millennials

Both couples were following each other's account before meeting in person. Due to the similar lifestyles they were both living (a vegan couple involved in the van life community) they decided to meet up back in October 2017. After that meet, up you can find both groups frequently posting van life content with each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z76HZ48OEf8

Video of their Van Meet-up

Through their content on YouTube and Instagram we can see the friendship development these two van life vloggers have been building in the past year. This concept of social networking sites can be used as an aid to build, maintain and develop friendships was discussed by Danah Boyd in her article “Friendship.” Boyd discusses the influence that social media has within teenage friendships. We see the tie that social media has developed with info sharing among teens which helps promote larger friendship networks. Thanks to social media platforms teens are able to share different ideas and interests amongst each other.  Besides developing friendships on social networking sites teens are also able to develop their future social and cultural norms which is a concept that has been brought up in the past by Aristotle. He believes that the core friends we surround ourselves with have an effect on how we mold our morals and beliefs.  

This concept is seen in adults as well, like we see with Minimalist Millennials and Eamon & Bec. We see a that thanks to social platforms such as YouTube and Instagram both parties went from being weak ties that were simply “following” each other to a development into strong ties as they are traveling and posting content together. Once of the main differences between the teens and these vloggers is the construction of their social and cultural norms through social media. Even though these van life vloggers have already developed their social and cultural norms they are able to find each other through social networking sites and reinfuses those customs through homophily. An example of this can be seen in a video that both parties posted sharing their vegan recipes with each other as well as explaining to their audiences how to follow a vegan lifestyle while living in a van. 

 Social media sites didn’t only help the Minimalist Millennials find people within their community but it also helped turn a weak tie into a strong one. This meet-up lead to other the friendship developments such as sharing of lifestyles and beliefs. As the minnimal millnials continue to meet with other members of their community it may mold and enchance te lifestyle they are currently living. 

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Intro to Car/Van Life

Sometimes becoming a house owner seems like a difficult dream to chase but there are many different housing alternatives that we have seen throughout the years. Some of those options being living in apartments, condos, trailers, and even tiny houses. One day as I was exploring tiny house videos on YouTube a video by a YouTuber named Katie Carney appeared in my recommended list. The video was titled “Do I Really Live in my Car?” to which I was intrigued enough to watch. After watching multiple videos by Katie, I started to see videos other recommended creators that are also living in their car. The more I explored the subject I learned these vloggers referred to their lifestyle as “car/van life”.    

This alternative housing lifestyle consist of people making traveling their number one priority and they are able to travel different parts of the country and world by transforming their vehicles in order to mimic the basics of a house. Many of these vloggers either work online or find different jobs in the cities they are staying at that moment. All this information was available to me thanks to their fan base. Just like myself, these vloggers have a strong fan based that is extremely curious about their lifestyle, how they are able to sustain it, and want to become more knowledgeable about the overall community. Due to all this curiosity the vloggers provide videos answering all these questions which serve as a guide to future people who are looking into becoming part of this community.  

For these next couple of weeks, I will be primarily following four different account by Katie Carney (@katiecarney), Hobo Ahle (@hoboallie), Susi Cruz (@susicruzz), and the Minimal Millennials (@minimalmillennials) and explore how these car/van life vloggers have used different social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube in order to document and popularize this lifestyle.  As I keep exploring these vloggers page I am sure I will be able to stumble upon other pages that can help me become more familiar with the overall community.  

Katie Carney (@katiecarney)

Even though all these vloggers have a similar theme in their channels they all have their own unique content that brings out different views of participating in the car/van life. Starting with Katie Carney. She is a vlogger who you lives in her Toyota Yaris and travels all over the US. Katie has various types of videos but primarily focusses on answering her fans questions about living in her car and how to maintain that lifestyle. Katie also creates content addressing how she deals with her mental illness while on the road and some of the personal struggles she has faced in her life. Katie’s choice to stay in her car and not transition into a van is a very interesting one since most people from the community prefer a van for the extra space and comfort.  

Hobo Ahle (@hoboallie)

Next, we will be following Hobo Ahle. Ahle started off living in her car and as you follow her journey you see her transition from a small car to a Jeep then recently into her Van. Ahle is also a vlogger and has a lot of content showing her transition from different vehicles, her daily routines, and tips on how to live in your car/van.  

Susi Cruz (@susicruzz)

Susi Cruz has a similar channel to Hobo Ahle and also labels herself as a solo female traveler. One of the main differences is that Suzi can be seen traveling not only in the US but all over the world. Like many other vloggers Susi’s content consists on tips about living in her van but she also focuses on making content vlogging the different locations she has visited. Recently Susi has been posting content traveling with her new partner, which is very common in this community. 

Minimal Millennials (@minimalmillennials)

The Minimal Millennials consists of a couple who are fairly new to the community and have been traveling to different parts of the world. There are many solo travelers such as Katie, Ahle, and Susi, therefor looking into the life of the Minimal Millennials would bring a different perspective to the traveling lifestyle. Their videos vary in content. They discuss familiar topics such as van remodels but also other personal topics such as how their relationship is doing while being on the road.  

Even though all these vloggers share their stories on the same platform, YouTube, they all bring their own different style and element to the community. As the weeks progress we will have a better insight into all of the vloggers content and lifestyle within this car/van life community.