To me it all started with bumping into r/minimalism years ago (shoutout to !minimalism@lemmy.world, the migrated r/minimalism) and reading books about it.
I noticed that with minimalism came simple living, enjoying the small things in life. I often feel like they are interconnected due to this, but this could just be my experience.
How many others had a similar experiences, or did something else bring you here? Also welcome experiences about directly searching for simple living topics and bumping into this community (originally on reddit).
I typed a response to this yesterday, but my phone ate it. 🙃 For anyone else trying to comment here, you need to explicitly set the language of your comment to “English” when responding to Kbin users (which OP is.)
I started out in spaces related to minimalism before I found the simple living movement. It definitely felt like a good fit in some ways, but a very bad one in others. For example, I definitely prefer to own less stuff than the average person, but I would say that for me this comes from a rejection of consumerism. Whereas many “minimalists” are very driven by consumerism: opting for buy very few items, but only those of the best brands or with the right “aesthetic.”
There is also a tendency for grifting in those spaces. People become microcelebrities and put out blogs, videos, and even documentaries all rehashing the same, meaningless message. “My life was so terrible, and then I discovered minimalism and discarded all my possessions, and now my life is great.” The epitome of this is “The Minimalists,” two guys who somehow ended up with a Netflix documentary. This content has a great aesthetic, but lacks substance of any kind. They fail to dig into the things that explain why shopping doesn’t make us happy (the hedonic treadmill,) or provide a meaningful critique of consumerism.
So, compared to the average person, I would say that I am a minimalist. But it isn’t an identity I would tout in front of self-professed “minimalists,” because we have fundamentally different values.
I am so sorry I did not realize Kbin does that… no wonder I’ve had issues. I usually post on my lemmy account but have really been liking kbin lately. Seems I don’t even have an option to post with “undefined” language.
Now, you put it exactly how I feel about this topic! I got into it from a blog post, checked out the infamous “minimalists” and Marie Kondo, but felt like the message is the same and feels like they are just trying to make a lot of money on the concept of minimalism after the first two paragraphs of text. Be it podcast, netflix show or anything else.
The great thing I got from it all was the mentality against consumerism. I didn’t realize how social media conditioned me to follow the latest trends and buy the newest gadgets.
Thanks for your awesome response (and sorry about the post settings).
Lol I did the same thing and lost my long well thought it response. Heres the gist; I agree with Inasaba so much. I started out exploring minimalism, but became repulsed by the prevalence of minimalism being the goal rather than a means to a goal. (Had the same experience with the ultralight backpacking community). When used as a principle component of a larger framework, it definitely compliments simple living. My personal philosophy is a combination of simple living, spirituality (mix of Druidry, Buddhism, Pantheism maybe), naturalism, and love (and probably some other things I haven’t quite sussed out).
I think minimalism in a vacuum is unlikely to provide significant satisfaction, but can be an emergent property of other pursuits. Conversely, in pursuing other virtues that can benefit from minimalism, it can be very helpful to examine minimalism specifically to help establish intentionality and prcaticalize principles to get you where you want to be.
I’m so sorry about the post settings… Didn’t realize that affects federation!
And I agree, I couldn’t read or watch anything related to the topic after realizing it’s seen as a goal. I do see it as a great starting point into being more mindful of the life around you.
Thank you for taking the time to rewrite your answer!
Anytime friend! Yeah it’s definitely a good starting point! Honestly it was the first Minimalist documentary on Netflix that pulled things into focus for me, but then I feel like I outgrew that world. I hope that doesn’t come across as sanctimonious.
No, it doesn’t! I bet many of us had the same experience :)
For me it was quite a different journey, I started a few years ago by bumping approximately at the same time in r/declutter and r/zerowaste, which even though might seem to be contrasting (and I would be lying if I said that I had and occasionally have problems in balancing the two mindsets!) I still argue that there’s an overlap, with decluttering being for me a prerequisite towards a lower-impact lifestyle and the latter helping to maintain a clutter-free living space.
From a more environmentally conscious lifestyle then came the interest in simple living, and only from there I started reading more about minimalism. All of those things resonate a lot with me and with the life I want to live (also because I had mostly the opposite examples growing up, and I took too much time to realize how badly it influenced me), although I generally don’t consider myself a minimalist. It’s more that I have my definition of what “simple living” means to me and having less stuff means to having less to worry about - so, yes, I agree in feeling that they are interconnected, but I don’t think minimalism can be a goal in itself.
That said, a big part of the reason why I’m interested in all of these four themes is essentially political: to not cave in to a society designed towards making us consume (with all of its social and environmental implications). And on a more personal side of things, my definition of simple living, as an atheist and materialist, in the philosophical sense of the term, is that my life will always be shorter than I want, thus having less unimportant stuff, less distractions is to me an imperative in order to make the most out of this short time.
