Let's Talk About Mondays

            When you hear the word Monday what do you think of? What feeling do you get? Some people look forward to Mondays because it’s the start of a new week, a blank slate. Others cringe when they hear the word because it means there weekend has come to an end and that they would have to go back to work, the real world.

            Preston Kelly is a student at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. He is getting ready to graduate, but not until he was able to show off a very big accomplishment of his at the annual Capstone Session. This session included Communication Studies majors who completed this course along with their Capstone project. The session included approximately thirty students who showed off their research to the public. There work was displayed in The Union for an hour which allowed time for individuals to browse there brilliant posters and hear them speak on behalf of there research.

            Preston spent all semester on a qualitative research study that consisted of oral interviews. He wanted to examine how people communicate about Mondays, and also how they communicate about every other day of the week. He wanted to see how his information was relevant with job satisfaction and perceptions about the other days of the week. Ten total participants ranging from 19-75 years of age took place in this study including 6 females and 4 males that were currently working either part time or full time jobs. The two main questions he asked were: RQ1. How do people communicate about Mondays in the messages that they send and receive? RQ2. How do people communicate and categorize other days of the week in relation to Monday?

            Many interviewees said that they believed their coworkers were lacking energy and a strong work ethic on Mondays. This could be because it is hard for many workers to transition from their personal weekend life to their professional weekday life. I found it very interesting that almost everyone identified Wednesday as “Hump Day”. He included in his study how every one of these participants have positive outlooks on life and they are satisfied with their jobs yet Monday still contained a negative connotation to them because it was the end of the weekend that they enjoyed so much.

            One thing that I learned that was not on Preston’s board is the reason he became interested in this topic is because he remembers seeing advertisements on the negative feels toward Mondays and he thought it had to do with job satisfaction. He quickly learned that it had nothing to do with job satisfaction and that the general public just does not enjoy the transition from the weekend to the busy work week. 

           Another board I was interested in was on Relational Maintenance and Social Media by Chuckie Tyler. Chuckie met with 11 female participants ranging from 19 years and older who have been dating someone for a minimum of 12 consecutive months. His three main research questions were RQ1: In what ways, if any, has the inclusion of social media altered the way we maintain our relationship with our partners. RQ2: How has relational maintenance changed since the beginning of being in a committed relationship? and RQ3: How has social media affected the way we maintain our relationship? He sat down and did interviews with each one of them to conclude that as relationships matured they became less likely to post there love life on social media and became more focused with their personal face to face interactions. 

           Overall, I am glad I went to the Capstone Session because it gave me insight to what I have to look forward too. I gained a lot of knowledge that will help me succeed in my future class and it also helped me understand research better. I had exposure to many different methods of research and also viewed some interesting topics.