“MY MINIMALIST JOURNEY:” NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF YOUTUBE MINIMALISM STORIES

The recent minimalist lifestyle is often claimed to be a way change your life by minimizing spending, possessions, tasks, relationships, etc. YouTube an important venue where content published and shared (Meissner, 2019). current study focuses on “minimalist journey" narratives, people tell their stories of "encountering" the lifestyle. I collected from 40 videos with comments analyzed them using narrative analysis methods, both thematic structural (Labov & Waletzky, 1997; Riessman, 2005). By closely examining these this sheds light how experience make sense within context anti-consumerism neoliberalism in digital space. This also contributes culture studies showcasing personal narratives are constructed video-sharing platforms like YouTube. Two themes emerged analysis. In “Hoarder Minimalist” narrative, narrators were once over-consuming hoarders now minimalists. Minimalism facilitates discursive rejections behavior disruptions consumerism. "transformational" stories, however, reinforcing neoliberal self that needs constant improvement. “Always been have always frugal due underprivileged social status. empowers providing set vocabulary for recreating meanings. It, downplays class divisions capitalist society as merely issue “framing”; struggles lower just need beautified “minimalism.”