The clock said time is gone; it’s time again

Rahman Mohamed

No matter what you say, you can’t deny: the calendar has changed including day, week, month, and year. Since it included year it brought the infamous “New Year’s Resolution”. The time has come for a new one. Maybe it’s the time for many. What will resolution be?

Published in the 2006 Veterinary Nursing Journal (humans are animals), Jane Brown, the resident human health nurse writes the most common resolutions among the homo sapiens are

• Lose weight
• Stop smoking
• Stick to a budget
• Save or earn more money
• Find a better job
• Become more organised
• Exercise more
• Be more patient at work/with others
• Eat better
• Become a better person

According to Making New Year’s Resolutions That Stick, results of a study published in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being (June 2019), the broader the resolution the more likely it is you will keep it. There’s nothing wrong with saying you’ll stop smoking in 3 months or reduce the number of cigarettes but just making no cigarettes the resolution helps you see yourself differently; as you keep puffing you see that you haven’t changed, the base of the resolution.

The study also found that people who used themselves, did the ask “Why”, kept the resolution more often. Saying you want to go jogging daily, asking why, and answering yourself to make yourself healthier is still broad (doesn’t include diet) but is more likely you’ll keep to the jogging. You have a reason, psychological influence.

One individual said he doesn’t make New Year’s resolutions but the one year he did it was to not try Heroin. He succeeded! It was broad, no time limit and he still hasn’t used it. He kept the only resolution he ever made; 100% success.

A couple of years later, in October 2021, Information, Communication and Society, published how New Year’s Resolutions reflect the kind of people we are too. The study looks at New Year’s Resolution Tweets for 2019 in English, German, Japanese, Italian and Korean together with the local where the languages are used.

In this study New Year’s Resolutions are looked at as a global ritual that people use to communicate their culture’s values, their own values, and their own valuation (worth). Coming from Social Media, the New Year’s Resolution was looked at what the user’s communication with the audience.

The German, Japanese, and Korean Tweets were found discussing the Tweet resolutions straightforward and seriously. On the other hand the English and Italian were sarcastic (the post is English but it’s true). They also found that the Tweets had self-betterment and self acceptance across; researchers expected Japanese and Korean Tweets to reflect the ground culture, more communal. German Tweet resolutions were found communal, including others not just the Tweeter.

A study from Sweden in 2020 in PLOS ONE showed the New Year’s Resolutions were stuck by longer if they were broken down; 2lbs a month resolution instead of the 20lbs resolution. It also showed social support; sharing the resolution with others (not stated if shared through Twitter). Rewarding can make you more likely to stick by your resolution.

Instead of a resolution some use New Year’s Eve for reflection, looking back on the past year. There’s always time for reflection; it’s practically the only thing online when you see “The Best Of …”. The question now: will you find a way to stay with the resolution or just wait till next year to make one?