2025 Wrapped

2025 went by so fast.

A lot happened this year. I’ve been pretty busy, so I haven’t had much time to do casual writing. Hopefully, once I’m done with classes next semester, I’ll have time for things like hobbies. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

I switched advisors this semester. My research interests were diverging from my old one, and I wasn’t enjoying the projects I was working on. For a while, I tried to find parts of the research I liked and focus on those. I took on side projects to try to explore other areas and figure out how to incorporate those into my ongoing work. I was fortunate that one of the side projects led me to find a new advisor who better fit my interests.

In the first year of your PhD, you’re really just figuring out what you want to do. It’s important that you have a genuine interest in your research, but you also have to consider factors like relevancy to current “hot” topics, novelty, and feasibility. Early in the summer, I got some good advice from an older student: try to combine the timely and the timeless in the research that you work on. In my case, the timeless was my interest in psychological theories like Goffman’s self presentation, and the timely was generative AI (I know, so specific).

I appreciate this kind of advice because it conveys that you can enjoy your work but still be practical. It’s similar to this career advice I got in high school: find a career that combines your passion and what you’re good at, because it’s often not the same thing. For me, “my passion” was social media, and I was “good at” math, which is what led me to computational social science. Over the years, this has evolved into “my passion” being people and “what I’m good at” being technology. Still pretty broad, but hopefully you get what I mean. That’s what I appreciate about interdisciplinary work. It combines so many different fields—we’re all working toward the same goals but with different perspectives.

In October, I started a research assistantship at Data & Society, where I’m studying how people use AI chatbots for mental and emotional wellbeing. Our team members come from all sorts of backgrounds: computer/information science, anthropology, science and technology studies. I’ve really enjoyed working on this project. I like to think of myself as a mixed-methods researcher, meaning I use both quantitative and qualitative methods. My advisor mostly prefers quantitative analyses, so working on this project has allowed me to do more qualitative research. And it’s been interesting to see parallel findings across my projects. I also like how my work with D&S seems more directly impactful to current events. We recently wrote a comment letter to the FDA’s Digital Health Advisory Committee in response to their ongoing efforts to treat mental health chatbots as medical devices.

I also attended CSCW in October. It was in Bergen, Norway. I presented a poster, but I was actually there to network. I met students and professors whose work I had read and admired. It was cool getting to meet them in real life. They say never meet your heroes, but I feel like everyone who I’ve met at conferences have exceeded my expectations.

The imposter syndrome hasn’t worn off–I’m still shocked when people take me seriously and actually use my ideas and consider my comments and opinions. I do think I have gotten better at speaking about my research over the past year, but I still feel like I sound stupid half of the time. So it’s nice when people thoughtfully respond to me. I try to do the same with the students I mentor. Patience and humility are extremely important traits to have as a researcher, and I want to be known as having those qualities.

Besides developments in my research, I’ve also had a lot go on in my personal life this year. A friend’s Title IX case made me incredibly disappointed in the current state of the institution. I also had a friend from Cornell pass away. Each of these things kept me from functioning normally for a while, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s important to care. Both situations have made me think about how I want to work to reform academia, in my current capacity as a student and if I should ever become a professor. Yes, my career is important, but what’s the point of doing research for the good of humanity if you’re not even doing the little things to improve your local community?

Despite the terrible things that have happened this year, I have also been touched by the community and the goodness of the people around me. In these two terrible events, I’ve grown closer to people I wouldn’t have otherwise, and I do think that’s a light in the darkness.

Overall, I would say I am satisfied with 2025. I’m currently writing this at the airport, and I’m a bit sad to be leaving Pittsburgh, even if only for winter break. I’m excited for the spring semester. I think I was made for grad school, and I’m so grateful for where I am right now. Honestly, I don’t have anything specific in mind to wish for myself in 2026. I guess I’m looking forward to my pre-frontal cortex developing a bit more. (˶ˆᗜˆ˵)

Wishing everyone a blessed holiday, and happiness and health in 2026!

Cheers,

Meryl