“He said he had posted the video because he cared about ‘sharing a realistic point of view,’ adding that some people were disappointed when their experience in a van didn’t turn out the way they had imagined based on what they had seen on social media. ‘You search for #vanlife on Instagram, and it just looks perfect,’ Mr. Frew said in a phone interview. ‘It looks like the ideal life that anyone would be crazy not to do.'” The pandemic made certain things impossible and certain things more popular. The latter category includes Van Life. NYT: How Veterans of Vanlife Feel About All the Newbies. (I never lived in a van, but I often pretend to be running errands while I’m really just sitting in my Volvo in the driveway listening to Howard Stern for three hours.)