I could see why somebody might think that, but I originally commented because the person i responded to was clearly just trying to paint them in a bad light for no reason other than petty jealousy.
1) Adding he “saving money” part is done to make them look like they’re cosplaying as poor people, which they clearly aren’t, and
2) They built the thing in their garage, so there’s no reason to think that they have any plans to “live on the road” rather than just using it for camping or something. A mobile home can be used when you go camping or on a road trip, just because you call it a “home” doesn’t mean you’re living in it year-round.
Plenty of influencers try to portray extravagant lifestyles as easily achievable, and those influencers can eat shit, but nothing in this video has that vibe. It’s unfair to lump these people in with them.
I don't find it unfair myself. If you want to be an influencer don't be shocked when people lump you into influencer behavior. Right or wrong it's just how the world works.
Saying this is my home and having the name "thetriointransit" is very leading and follows a lot of the van life culture and implies they don't have a house but live full time in the van.
Then when you go to their Instagram and find videos of them in their home gym, videos of their garage extension, it makes you question the validity of entire thing.
Why can't they just be honest and say we are building a really cool van bc we simply want to, we know how, and could use it for awesome trips.
If they are going to blur the lines themselves, don't be shocked when others blur the lines too.
Fair enough on the van life point; I just googled their handle, and van life is definitely a major part of their branding, so they'd definitely be considered a van influencer or whatever you'd call it. I have no problem with that though - my main influencer beef is portraying extravagant lifestyles as easily attainable, which this doesn't seem to do, and it's that group that I don't think it's fair to lump them into.
To be honest, I don't really understand the issue with the van life thing. As someone with 0 exposure to that culture (so feel free to correct me if you have any insight; I'm not being facetious here), it seems like a weird kind of gatekeeping. They have multiple kids, and those kids deserve to have a stable home environment, so are the parents just not allowed to be in to vans? How often do they need to be on the road to not be considered a "van poser"? If they take multiple trips a year in the thing and they enjoy working on/camping in/generally using them, why isn't that enough? I didn't do much research on them (because at this point the amount of time I've spent talking about these random people over the last day is getting absurd lmao), but at a glance they don't seem to be the "cosplaying as homeless" type of van people, just regular old "we like vans, we mod vans, and they're a part of our life" type of van people.
Why can't they just be honest and say we are building a really cool van bc we simply want to, we know how, and could use it for awesome trips.
That's a bit long for a hashtag, hahaha. I think it's just as simple as that.
Overall I agree with you. What others choose to do with their time has no effect on me.
I only commented to shed light that it's easy for people like the original commenters to assume they are the "status quo" van life types simply bc they have lumped themselves into that category.
Just want to say I appreciate the respectful dialogue you chose to engage with me. It's a breath of fresh air on reddit
Thanks to you as well! I’ve had a few good conversations on this thread and a few absolutely shite ones, so thanks for being one of the good ones. Have a great day my friend.
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u/Streetlamp_NA 7h ago
It does say "the van we bought vs the home we built" implying that they are living in it. I could see the why someone thinks that.