Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Tell Me Why I Don't Like... Tuesdays?


You know that 1979 Boomtown Rats song, "I Don't Like Mondays." (This Youtube music video features a very young-looking Bob Geldof.)  The song is about the 1979 shooting spree on a Monday morning at a San Diego elementary school. The shooter's only state reason for doing it was that she didn't like Mondays.

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
And nobody’s gonna go to school today
She’s gonna make them stay at home

It turns out that -- contrary to popular impression that Mondays are the worst day of the week -- Tuesdays are the worst day of the week.  According to a piece by Chris Hall (@hallicious) on HealthCentral, Tuesdays are the worst day of the week (moodwise) while Sundays are the best. This is based on mood rating scores from 500 users of the Mood 24/7 service, which HealthCentral licenses from Johns Hopkins University. After you sign up for the free service, the software sends you a text message at random times, and you text back your mood rating for that day.

So, you'd think that the latest date of the coming apocalypse, October 21, might be on a Tuesday. But it's not -- it's on a Friday.  Maybe it will get moved again.

3 comments:

Dinah said...

It's because there is nothing great to say about Tuesdays. You've lived through Monday, it's often the day people choose to work late (I do, lots of clinics, etc are open late) and Wednesday...well at least that's the official hump day, Thursday-- almost there, Friday : TGIF!!!!
I guess it could be Saturday as the saddest day for the "another Saturday night and I ain't got no buddy" folks, but hey, there's still Sunday to go.

Sarebear said...

We were hoping with all the people supposedly leaving last Saturday, that there'd then be plenty of jobs for my out of work husband . . . Alas, no. Heh.

On topic, I always thought Friday was the best, or Saturday. Sundays are "blah" for me. At least the school doesn't give homework on Fridays so she isn't stuck doing it over the weekend.

I expect that'll change with 7th grade tho, argh.

Chris Hall said...

What I really enjoy about pulling tidbits like this out of Mood 24/7 data is that it's safe to start conversations around these fringe aspects of mental health.

I won't be labeled "crazy" by "society" for talking about the best and the worst day of the week, or for trying to understand my own personal best and worst days of the week, for that matter.

Which leads me to think that using data visualizations to fight stigma has some merit. This belief strengthens every time I read somebody's personal interpretation of Mood 24/7 data visualizations...

In short, I love the post, love the comments and will keep pushing in this direction. Thank you for writing about it. :)