Anti-narrative vlogs defined 2025, and here’s why

I am not sure you will understand me when I say that my favorite content on social media is the kind that expects as little from me as possible. As much as I enjoy accounts devoted to analyzing philosophical positions, books, or social phenomena, I still slightly prefer watching someone go for coffee, shop, work out, simply fold laundry, or clean the bathroom, without a heavy narrative that demands too much mental effort from me. After a long day at work, and often right in the middle of that long day, I want to scroll through content that sits on the edge of complete brainrot and is so hyper-referential within another equally absurd and equally brain rot content ecosystem that you can only fully understand it if your screen time has long exceeded healthy limits. Do not judge me, this is the time we live in, okay? God forbid a girl has a hobby.

In the rare breaks from scrolling, my already thoroughly burned-out brain wondered why this particular type of content, my personal favorite, is so popular. The view counts these creators rack up show that others find it interesting too, and that, as always, you are never the only one or the first to have a certain thought. In this case, I am genuinely glad that there are thousands of people for whom anti-narrative vlogs serve as a form of comfort and relaxation, however bizarre that may sound.

For those who still possess a mental capacity greater than that of a five-year-old, but are curious to step into the world of those of us who have long accepted that not everything can or should have a deeper meaning, here is an explanation of why anti-narrative vlogs dominated 2025.

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What are anti-narrative vlogs?

Anti-narrative vlogs, in short, are content in which nothing happens. And that is precisely the point. There is no plot, no takeaway, no “stay until the end because there is a surprise waiting for you.” No one explains how you should live, what you should buy, how you should think, or why that particular morning ritual changed their life. The camera is on, a person exists, the day passes. Coffee is being drunk. Laundry is being folded. The elevator takes too long to arrive. Sometimes nothing is said. Sometimes something completely irrelevant is said. And that is the entire concept. I especially love videos in which I am “going somewhere” together with the creator. Yes, I absolutely want to go with you to get silk lashes and painfully pointy nails that I have always wanted!

Unlike classic vlogs that insist on narrative, structure, and personal growth, read: a mini TED Talk nobody asked for, anti-narrative vlogs refuse to be useful, which absolutely does not mean they are stupid or that they are merely wasting our time, at least no more or less than all other content on the internet. They have no ambition to educate you, inspire you, or make you feel bad because by 7 a.m. you still have not had collagen, done your journaling, and completed three affirmations. Their greatest value lies precisely in the fact that they demand absolutely nothing from you, except to watch.

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These vlogs function as digital white noise. A visual equivalent of someone being in the other room while you are doing something completely unrelated. That is exactly what I need, a 20-minute YouTube video while I wash all the dishes that have piled up over the past two days, because I am certainly not going to do that in complete silence. They do not ask for attention, they do not demand focus, they do not require interpretation. If your thoughts wander, you missed nothing. If you fall asleep, even better. An anti-narrative vlog is not content you need to “follow,” but something you can let happen while your brain takes a well-deserved vacation.

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Perhaps anti-narrative vlogs are actually an admission that we have collectively grown tired of the need to understand, interpret, and justify everything. Over the past year, the world has already served us more than enough absurdity, crises, and half-explanations, so the constant insistence on meaning has become not only exhausting but also suspicious. The idea that we must be intellectually engaged with everything we consume sounds like a rather pretentious, nicely packaged, and distinctly capitalist obligation. No, I do not want to constantly participate in something, I do not want to enroll in a new course, or listen to yet another podcast about technological progress, the future of AI, or a philosopher who, for some reason, we are now interpreting in a new way. Sometimes I just want to watch someone wash a mug and tell me some lore from their life that has absolutely nothing to do with me, wait for a bus, or sit silently in the kitchen.

If someone asks you to summarize this text for them, or if you simply want to boil its point down for yourself in the spirit of anti-narrative, I like to think of anti-narrative vlogs as small passive-aggressive acts against a world in which every post is optimized, explained, and packaged as “value.”