Is really this Monday for science, the most depressing of the year? Only if you believe it. The origins of a hoax that is very successful on social media.
Like every third Monday of January, the news has started to wind already on the web and radio for a few hours: today 20 January would be, statistically, the most depressing day of the year. The end of the long -awaited winter holidays, the return to work, the prospect of not going on vacation for a long time, the failure of the intentions for the new year and the fact that it is, however, a winter Monday would do the day of Today the sadness par excellence: it is the Blue Mondaytry to survive yourself.
But are there really mathematical reasons to define the third Monday of January, the worst date on the calendar? And, seriously, who can say that they have only returned to work today? As often happens, even in this case there is stink of “buffalo”.
The origin. The concept of Blue Monday was born on January 24, 2005. That day a press release made the world disclosed an alleged mathematical formula which, taking into consideration factors such as weather, taxes and bills to be paid, good intentions already failed, hours of light available and distance from Next holidays, labeling the third Monday of the month as a sad and nefarious day, under several points of view.
The behind the scenes. In reality, the formula was an unrelated attempt – and scientifically not very clear – to help an agency of public relations paid by a travel company (the Sky Travel), to understand what the day of the year was more likely that You book a holiday.
Arnall, at the time part-time tutor in an evening school, had rounded his earnings by conceiving a smoky formula aimed at increasing travel sales in the most sunny and happy corners of the earth. In the following years, he was also paid by a ice cream company, the Wall’s Ice Cream, to find the happiest day of the year.
Cards uncovered. The little scientificity of the formula, and its involvement with the A PR companies, were revealed in 2006 by other scientists who had received the same type of economic proposal.
Subsequently, the history of Blue Monday continued to be successful, thanks to the dissemination on social media: several companies interested in selling products at this time of the year – such as legal companies or alcohol brands – have taken this legend by declining it differently. The hoax of the mathematical formula has left for example the place to alleged analysis on number of tweets with depressed tones Posted on the third Monday of the month.
Responsibility. But those who deal with depression in a clinical sense remember that associating it with external causes such as the need for holidays or entertainment is dangerous: the risk is to pass the message that is enough to book a trip or make a drink to treat a chronic and deep condition.
