Blue Monday. The invented sadness and what's underneath.
Third Monday of January
Blue Monday was this week β the so-called saddest day of the year, calculated by a formula involving weather, debt, time since Christmas, failed resolutions, and low motivational levels. It was invented by a UK holiday company in 2005 as a marketing campaign to sell winter holidays. It has since been adopted by the media as an annual fact.
I use Blue Monday every year as a media literacy lesson for my daughter. Not in a heavy-handed way β just as a specific example of the thing I try to teach her generally: that not everything in the media is what it presents itself as, that the source of a claim is always worth knowing, and that a dramatic-sounding fact often has a much less dramatic origin.
She is twelve now and she knew before I told her this year. She said: 'Is this the fake one?' Yes. 'We had this last year.' Yes.
The fact that she remembered is the thing. Media literacy is not a lesson you teach once. It is a set of habits of attention that have to be practised regularly until they become automatic. The Blue Monday conversation happens every January. After enough Januaries, it will happen inside her head without me prompting it.
After enough Januaries, it will happen inside her head without my prompting. That is the goal of the media literacy lesson: that she runs it herself.
After enough Januaries, it will happen inside her head without my prompting. That is the goal of the media literacy lesson: that she runs it herself.
That is the goal: that she runs it herself.
Materials, steps, what to notice β the hands-on part that makes the edition usable at home with your children this week.
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