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Mondays Are the Worst, Data Science Proves (qz.com)

Posted by msmash on from the you're-not-alone dept.

An anonymous shares a report: People who are miserable on Monday have lots of company. It's the worst day of the week for millions, according to researchers at the University of Vermont Complex Systems Center who analyze Twitter messages for happiness sentiment. Mood tends to improve during the rest of the week, peaking on Saturday, before beginning to crash again, according to data based tweets since 2008. In this analysis, the university's "hedonometer" takes a random sample of about 50 million Twitter posts each day, which is roughly 10% of all the site's message traffic. The researchers have assigned average scores to more than 10,000 commonly used words (from 1 to 9, on a scale of increasing happiness), which are used to measure a particular day's happiness. The data can also offer some insight into how populations have responded to major events. The day after the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 2 was Twitter's saddest day on record, according to the University of Vermont research. Another low was recorded on May 2, 2011, when Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind behind thousands of murders, was killed. Rather than clear positivity, language used on Twitter "reflected that a very negatively viewed character met a very negative end," according to the researcher's website.

6 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. we find it is better to fire someone on firday by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 4, Funny

    as it leads to fewer incidents. Monday is the worst day

    1. Re: we find it is better to fire someone on firday by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's why I always come to work drunk on Fridays. It help provide a coping mechanism in case I ever do get fired. It makes my job as an air traffic controller that much easier.

  2. Mondays are the worst if you make them that way. by ErikTheRed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't have bad Mondays, in general. I love my job - not ever moment of it; people and situations will occasionally annoy, but in general I'm a happy camper at work. If you don't love your job, then you should either find something else or find a way to love it. There's no extra reward for going through life miserable.

    --

    Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
  3. Marvin, the Paranoid Robot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The first ten million years were the worst, and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.

  4. Why I work Tue-Sat by HalAtWork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't deal with all the shitty attitudes of Monday. I start my work week on Tuesday when people have gotten over all that. On Saturday when there's less people I feel like I have a more relaxing catch-up day where I can be productive, tying up loose ends and doing what I can to prepare for the next week.

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
  5. I love Mondays by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The two days of the week I look forward to most are Sunday and Wednesday, since those are the days of greatest fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

    Monday isn't a drag at all - just the opposite really - as I get to spend time developing my devotional for Wednesday evening group and studying for my Tuesday evening bible class. It's always a day of being richly in the Word so I would hardly call it the "worst" day.

    I think Thursday is probably my least favorite day, which is not to say that it's a bad day... it's just coming down from Sunday -> Wednesday marathon of scripture, prayer, and fellowship.