The only 'Blue Monday' article you'll ever need

It's Blue Monday again. Except is isn't. Because the third Monday in January is NOT the 'most depressing day of the year'. Never has been. And I'm weary of saying that.

It’s Blue Monday! The third Monday in January! The most depressing day of the year! According to science!

Except it’s not. You may have heard that it’s a thing. But then I’ve heard, repeatedly, that we all live in a yellow submarine. However, on closer inspection, the evidence does not support this conclusion.

And so it is with Blue Monday. This is something I’ve said before. Many, many times. It’s got to the point where I’m genuinely concerned that it may have been forgotten about it by now, if it weren’t for my constant high-profile moaning.

But nonetheless, every year, around mid-January, I get hits/alerts/notifications as news platforms the world over blow the dust off their usual Blue Monday articles, and publish them again. And I’m invariably mentioned in them.

So, seeing as I’m irrevocably tied to Blue Monday as far as the algorithms are concerned, here’s everything you need to know about this calendar cryptid.

Image by JESHOOTS.com

It’s based on an equation…

No. Blue Monday is not based on an equation, or any actual maths, research or evidence.

Yes it is! I’ve seen it!

What, this equation?

That’s the one!

Yeah that looks like an equation, much like how if you arrange your hands in a certain way, it makes a shadow that looks like a rabbit. But it’s not, you know, actually a rabbit.

Much like a shadow puppet, this equation is something created by humans that lacks any actual substance.

The symbols used apparently represent things like “time since failure of New Years Resolution”, “Debt Level”, “Weather”, “motivation levels”, and stuff like that. Practically none of these can even be measured in any reliable, objective way, let alone reduced to mathematically compatible data.

For instance, ‘motivation x weather =…’. How would you even begin to calculate that? It makes no sense. And you certainly can’t combine all these things in such a way to give you a robust, reliable result that determines a date where everybody is most depressed.

Also, even if all that wasn’t the case, I’ve been cited in Blue Monday articles from places like Brazil, or Australia. Southern Hemisphere countries. Where it’s summer in January. Ergo, the weather is completely different!

But ‘weather’ is an integral part of the equation. How can you put a totally different set of data into an equation and still get the same result?

You can’t. Unless it’s entirely made up. In which case, you can do what you like.

But wasn’t it worked out by professional researchers?

No. It was concocted by a Travel Company. Because, astonishingly, few people book holidays right after Christmas.

As far as one can tell, they came up with this ‘depressing day’ malarkey as a means to a) get free publicity, and b) persuade people to go on holiday when they can’t afford to. They seem to have succeeded with the first thing, admittedly.

But to give it some clout, they cast around for a ‘proper’ scientist to put their name to it, and found Cliff Arnall.

Despite presenting himself as a ‘Cardiff University Psychologist’, Arnall was actually tutoring at the University’s centre for lifelong learning (which teaches part-time courses for adults)¹. While I would never disparage helping adults to learn, calling yourself a “Cardiff University Psychologist” on the back of this is like saying you discovered the Higgs Boson because you were part of the catering department at CERN.

It’s not that you didn’t contribute, but…

So yeah, a travel company made up some numbers, and they were attached to a less-than-100%-honest dubiously-qualified ‘academic’ with a track record of doing exactly this sort of thing. And lo, a media phenomenon was born.

Image by Pixabay

But it does feel like a depressing day!

Well yeah, it would. It’s cold, wet, and dark out². Christmas is firmly in the rear view mirror, providing a grim contrast. You’re skint. You’re probably still adjusting to the “get in shape” new year’s resolutions. Or have already abandoned them and feel guilty. Which is fine. Life is hard enough without self-imposed denials of anything enjoyable.

Also, it’s a Monday. A grim day as it is. Just ask Garfield.

All that is why they decided to pick this particular date! It wasn’t random.

But the idea that this is the most depressing day of the year, for literally everyone regardless of their circumstances, is farcical.

If it’s such nonsense, why does the media keep reporting it like it isn’t?

Well it’s a ‘thing’ now, isn’t it. It’s a simple, compelling concept that helps people attribute the ennui or unpleasantness they’re experiencing to something else. Which can be reassuring.

And a few decades ago, when this bilge was first concocted, before everything became rolling chaos, January was often a slow news time. So, news sites were happy to have some click-friendly content land on their collective laps. It was a pre-written press release after all, so required the bare-minimum effort to put it out there.

Travel company gets their publicity, news site gets an article that costs them barely anything, Arnall gets a cheque and undeserved credibility, everyone’s happy!

Except me. And mathematicians. And everyone else. Because it’s a depressing day. Apparently.

Why do you care so much about this?

Personally, because I feel it derailed my academic career. I was a young, naïve PhD student (doing research at Cardiff University, ironically), who was also dabbling in stand-up, and the local press asked for my take on this Blue Monday phenomenon. I’d never heard about it before, so I gave an honest, and compliant interview.

It was edited and presented in a way that was… undignified. Certainly didn’t do my academic credibility any favours.

Image taken from the South Wales Echo

And this wasn’t the only time. Over the next few years, I was approached by the media several more times to offer my take on the phenomenon, and every time I tried to make myself seem more credible, and every time the use of ‘careful editing’ meant it backfired, and I’d seem even stupider.³

Ironically, the damage this probably did to my credibility as a ‘serious’ neuroscientist, combined with giving me significant motivation to communicate real, credible science, shunted me towards a writing career. So, in a sense, I owe Blue Monday a great deal. Which makes me even more resentful

But objectively, it spreads bad science, bogus research, and the notion that you can make any claim you like as long as you have complex-looking formulas to back it up. On top of that, it strongly suggests that mood, wellbeing, and mental health is something that can be easily worked out, generalisable, and fleeting.

None of those things are true, and make things actively more difficult for people who genuinely do struggle with mental health issues. And that’s, you know… bad. I don’t care how ‘familiar’ or ‘frivolous’ people may see it as.

Today is Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Surely that’s depressing?

Well, yeah. But that’s a coincidence!

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Cheer yourself up by buying my new book, Why Your Parents Are Hung-Up on Your Phone and What To Do About It. It deals with online misinformation and how to recognise/tackle it

1. I believe he was teaching ‘wellbeing’, or some such, but I can’t find a reference for that

2. If you’re in the Northern hemisphere. Or the UK specifically, where this nonsense originated.

3. Some friend, when January rolled around, would say “isn’t it time for Dean’s annual humiliation”.