I enjoy it when you talk about your research, and it was really nice to see you get excited about an article. I'm a second year PhD student wrapping up course work and I have been feeling SO unmotivated. Honestly, I forgot what it feels like when something clicks and makes you excited about your work. It's definitely a particular kind of high.

I so feel what you're saying re: affirmation and excitement from people outside your field or the academy altogether. one of the most meaningful things to me is how invested in and excited about my work my therapist is; yes, she's my therapist, and of course her job in many ways is to support me, but having a good therapist does not necessarily mean that they will feel invigorated by/understand/feel personal investment in your work. like affirmation from my chairs is great and much needed lol, but there's something extra special about my therapist saying to me "I'm a huge fan of your work; I can't wait for your book" etc etc

ahhh anxiety...... worrying about something that might happen in the distant future based on the personal experiences shared by others. Right there with ya.

I have similar research interests, so I truly enjoy hearing about your research and thought process as you put things together for your dissertation. I am a decently private person but I have had to find a way to open up online because I realized that otherwise, I might not be as interesting or relatable. Simultaneously I think about my motives and whether I am being genuine in what I am sharing. I think I am finding a good balance and only sharing what I am comfortable with--it's still interesting to think about our motives in how and what we share online. Also, I loved The Seven Year Slip, I hope you enjoy it!

I am in my last year of my PhD, but started teaching full time this fall. My field is also a bit different since I teach masters levels psychology, but I feel really positive that with your expertise, (especially with new certificate programs at my school in digital Literacy) you'll get a job quickly!

Good luck with your job search. Outside of academia it is also a dumpster fire. Getting ghosted is pretty common. What is worse is when they tell you how your the perfect match and then you never hear anything back from them. I dropped out of my PhD program during my dissertation. I went back and am about to graduate with my second master's degree.

Sarah you always brighten up my Monday with your vlogs and your vlogs are always always best for me and I wish you have a wonderful week ahead🥹♥️🥹♥️🥹

Great video as always! My favorite part was your “breakthrough” after you read the article… Your passion for your field and research interests is so refreshing and inspiring! Thank you!

I'll be applying for academic jobs in about a year or a year and a half (if all goes well) so I think following your own experience will be very interesting and helpful (although I'm in Europe and won't be applying for jobs in the US so some things might be different)! Regarding "imagining others more complexly": I've come across some similar arguments about literature, in the sense that because we have direct access to a character's interiority, we can exercise our empathic imagination. I'd counter-argue that maybe vlogs don't work in this same way as literature does because we don't actually get access to the vlogger's interiority: in your case, you display emotion, you communicate your thoughts etc. but we know that ultimately you show and you speak about what you want to show and speak about - you have the option to lie, to not show something, etc. I don't have access to your interior monologue, to your motives, etc. as I might have in relation to a character when I read a piece of fiction. Ultimately, your interiority is still as guarded as any other person's interiority. But maybe vlogs can help us imagine others more complexly in other ways - I'd love to hear more about this as you work though it!!

22:20 I think the argument about vlogs making viewers more aware of others’ experiences can be seen concretely in the titles. For instance, all of (or most of) your titles have PhD in the title. I believe at first, language about “English” was included to specify the field, which (either originally or more recently) was narrowed down with “rhetoric and composition.” In this vlog, you go even further by specifying the lay name for the subtopic in rhet comp. I found your videos originally because I wanted to go to grad school for rhet/comp. You were one of the few vloggers who posted videos about the PhD experience in a field that I know little about and wanted to find more information on. My whole motive for watching your vlogs was to understand the complexity of your experience to try and help inform whether or not I wanted to take similar steps in my own life (this should be then further complicated with a discussion of the vlogger, who may intentionally/unintentionally show specific parts of their experience that may inform or perhaps misinform viewers). I have done the same with other professions. In fact, some of the vloggers I watch now I predominantly do so because they are in law school (which is where I am headed to after undergrad). In high school, I found videos from people I no longer really watch about their college experience more generally or about other specific graduate experiences (when I wanted to go to med school in like middle school/early high school, I started watching “thestrivetofit”). The language of “Day in the life of XYZ” (fill in the blank with name of profession) allows viewers to more easily find vloggers based on their interest in learning more about the lived experiences of people in profession XYZ. I think this has interesting implications beyond learning about others experiences. To that end, I think it commodifies people’s identities and routes their value to their “role” in the marketplace (see critiques on neoliberalism for more, especially for a historical introduction The Guardian’s “Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world.” A Marxist view would see this as the commonplace restructuring of all spaces in capitalism by the view of the capitalist elite). Beyond that, however, are discussions about people who don’t post their job or profession. There are many popular vloggers who don’t name their profession in their videos or don’t work. Again, that is complicated by the fact that some people’s whole job is to make vlogs (again, interesting economic implications about the commodification of life in order to sell personal experience for profit-not unlike memoirs. This then has profound implications about the navigation of self disclosure and self censorship decisions 6:30 that inform how vloggers decide to include or silence certain experiences. Keeping this discussion about economics (though certainly you could talk about things like identity, but as a Marxist, it is difficult to talk about identity without discussing the economy), the choices made then are done so in the interest of profit. You gave the example of crying in the thumbnail as a rhetorical strategy to engage viewers, increase viewership, and either turn a higher initial profit or gain viewership to turn a later on profit/get more fame. This is all so complicated!).

I've been considering doing a post doc on parasocial relationships. So funny how much my research always seems to have in common with yours. Xx

Best post spring break start to a Monday!

Another great vlog! Where did you get your tan/ beige pants you wore that the beginning? Super cute!

Are you considering non-academic jobs at all? About to start applying to PhD programs so in a wildly different stage of the process, but I’ve been trying to think about what the value of a PhD is outside of academia to hopefully avert some of the super valid anxiety about the state of the academic job market!