What 2,000 people just told us about 2025

Hi there, it's Steph 👋

When we started working with Vox Media on The Year, Explained 2025, we had a hypothesis: AI adoption would be the big story. And sure, it was a major theme. But what really stood out? A growing craving for the real world.

Movie theaters are back. Board games are thriving. Cooking family recipes? A whole cross-generational thing. After years of everything shifting online, people just want to touch stuff again.

That’s the thing about research... you should always go in with a strong hypothesis, but you have to be willing to let the data prove you wrong. A good survey isn’t a validation exercise; it’s a reality check. If you’re only using research to confirm what you already believe, you’re missing the real insights.

The best research doesn’t just give you answers. It makes you rethink the question.

This one definitely did.​
​
Steph
​Founder, Two Cents
‍

TL;DR:
Hypotheses Are Great. Being Wrong Is Even Better.

Start with a strong hypothesis. Be ready to throw it out. The best research doesn’t confirm what you already believe. It forces you to rethink, adjust, and follow where the data leads, even if it wasn’t where you expected to go.

Field Notes

Having a strong hypothesis is great. Clutching onto it for dear life when the data says otherwise? Not so much.

We went into this Vox study thinking AI adoption would be the dominant theme. We knew skepticism existed, but we didn’t expect 83% of people saying they want more government regulation around it or 75% predicting an AI-generated photo scandal in 2025. That’s not just hesitation, that’s full-blown mistrust.

And the biggest surprise? The pushback against digital everything.

• 67% of people prefer hands-on, tactile activities over digital convenience.
• Classic hobbies like board games, home cooking, and movie nights are resurging across generations.
• Gen Z and Millennials, the digital natives, are leading the charge on IRL experiences.

But getting to these insights wasn’t just about asking the right questions, it was about structuring the survey in a way that could surface big-picture cultural shifts and the small, everyday behaviors that define them.

This survey required alignment across multiple teams at Vox Media, each bringing their own perspective on what mattered most.

The challenge?

Designing a study that could answer huge existential questions - Where is humanity headed? How do we feel about technology’s role in our lives? - without losing sight of the smaller, more tangible behaviors - What are we eating? How are we entertaining ourselves?

It’s not easy to hit multiple altitudes in a survey. Go too broad, and you end up with vague insights. Go too narrow, and you miss the bigger picture. But when you get it right, you don’t just test a single hypothesis, you get a richer, more complete view of what’s really happening.

The best surveys don’t confirm what we think we know. They give us more ways to test our assumptions, see the unexpected connections, and ultimately, learn something new.

And if the data never surprises you, you’re probably not asking the right questions.