2024-01-16 00:13:13
The feeling of uncertainty about what the new year holds, the return to work obligations, the return of school pensions, the bank accounts that are still affected by the excesses of Christmas, among other stressful situations, are those factors that have led to creating ‘Blue Monday’, known in Spanish as ‘Sad Monday’, which is considered every third Monday in January, so in 2024 it will take place on Monday, January 15.
The origin of this date dates back to a theory from many years ago and since then it has always been a trend on social networks, which are full of publications with the hashtag #BlueMonday and “messages of encouragement” to cope with these depressing 24 hours.
WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF “BLUE MONDAY”?
It all started in 2005, when psychologist Cliff Arnall was working on an campaign for the defunct travel company Sky Travel and ended up designing a formula to calculate the worst day of the year.
Initially, according to the BBC from an interview by Arnall with the British newspaper The Telegraph, the psychologist had been asked to calculate “what would be the best day to plan the summer holidays.”
However, after thinking about all the comments he received from his patients, he decided to analyze the factors that stress those who come to his workshops and concluded that the third Monday in January “is particularly depressing.”
So, after examining all the causes that he gradually gathered, such as the weather, Christmas excesses and frustrated New Year’s goals, Cliff ended up finding a formula to calculate which is the worst day of the year.
WHAT IS THE FORMULA THAT CLIFF ARNALL PROPOSED TO CALCULATE THE WORST DAY OF THE YEAR?
According to the BBVA web platform, the results of the psychologist’s research reveal the following equation: C+(Dd) 3/8xTI MxNA).
To understand it in detail, the factors mean the following:
- ‘C’: is the climatic factor.
- ‘D’: debts acquired during the holidays.
- ‘d’: talks about the money that will be collected at the end of January.
- ‘T’: is the time since Christmas.
- ‘I’: refers to the period since the last failed attempt to quit a bad habit.
- ‘M’: refers to the remaining motivations.
- ‘NA’: is the need to act to change life.
According to the formula, after the Christmas and New Year celebrations, many people begin to feel economic, dietary or emotional excesses, and begin to notice that the resolutions they set become complicated goals, so they then begin to feel deep discouragement.
Considering that Monday is considered the most unpleasant day of the week, many may feel certain depressive symptoms, such as lack of energy, tiredness and sadness.
WHAT IMPACT DID THE ORIGIN OF ‘BLUE MONDAY’ HAVE?
The scientific rigor of the reason for this day has been highly questioned, especially because it ended up becoming a Sky Travel campaign where it was conveyed that to counteract this sadness, the best thing was to take a trip hiring the airline’s services.
In addition, Arnall came to be harshly criticized by some of his colleagues. For example, neuroscientist Dean Burnett, who worked in the psychology department at Cardiff University in Britain, called the formula “nonsense pseudoscience” in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian.
On the other hand, scientist Ben Goldacre provided comments on Arnall’s equations. “Stupid and some of them don’t even make mathematical sense,” he declared in The Guardian newspaper. “It is no surprise, since they are prepared by public relations companies that are only looking for the name of a scientist,” he added.
WHAT IS THE IMPACT THAT ‘BLUE MONDAY’ HAS HAD ON THE PRESENT DAY?
Due to the great impact that this day has on social networks, companies take advantage of the date to promote their products with the aim of ‘improving the day’.
In fact, Cliff himself has been part of a campaign called #StopBlueMonday, which is promoted by the government of the Canary Islands, where he points out the following: “Don’t let this formula give you permission to laugh or cry… These 24 hours will give you They belong, don’t let anyone take them from you, not even a certain Cliff Arnall.”
On the other hand, many users, in order to avoid sadness, fill social networks with comments to lift their spirits every third Monday in January.
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