Today Is the Most Depressing Day of the Year, Google Says No

Are you depressed or unhappy today ?

Maybe you are feeling just fine but Cardiff researchers say that the third Monday of January is the unhappiest or most depressing day of the entire year because of factors like bad weather, unpaid Christmas holiday bills and failed New Year resolutions.

Kate Redway said: ‘Sadly, one in five people in the UK experience depression and this time of year can be particularly difficult, with people in debt after Christmas and finding it hard to settle back into a work routine during dark days.’

However Bill Tancer of Hitwise is not convinced and he intelligently uses search traffic to prove his point. According to Bill, if the world is really feeling depressed and low, they will probably Google the causes and treatment of depression. And that’s not happening.

There are absolutely no spikes for searches related to “depression” and non of the anti-depressant websites have seen any remarkable jump in web traffic.

On the contrary, traffic to sites was highest in November around Thanksgiving which is the start of the holiday season. So people start to feel the blues before the launch of holidays and not afterwards.

It’s an interesting case because search traffic is being used to challenge an “emotional” theory which is otherwise so tough to prove. I’m feeling lucky.