In February 2009, in the depths of the recession, I wrote a thought piece titled ‘Chin up Britain’ in which I explored how the online population of the country was reacting to the economic crisis.  I wanted to know whether the assertion, by brands and the media alike, that we were a cowed, passive and pessimistic nation, responsive only to increasingly hysterical headlines and special offers, was borne out by the data.

What I discovered confounded this assumption.  We were still falling in love and fantasising about high performance sports cars just as we did in the good times. We were no more depressed nor considering divorce nor leaving the country than we were before.  In fact, we were more creative, robust and resourceful than ever. 

So now that we’re in the position of being able to look back at the credit crunch proper but look forward to an indefinite period of austerity, what can the online data tell us about the changes that the economic crisis brought about? Are those changes only temporary or indicative of a longer term societal shift?  We have we, as a nation, learned from the experience and how is it shaping our current behaviour?

 In particular, I have looked at whether these changes occurred as a result of the recession, or whether they are part of a wider trend, both in terms of broader societal trends and the changing role of the Internet and how we connect and engage with it in our daily lives. 

 As before, I have found some surprises, with data that contradicts the school of thought currently popular in the media that we have gone straight from recession to austerity with no intervening period of rest and rejuvenation. But at the same time, I also found plenty of evidence at odds with the assertion by many consumer brands that we want to forget the recession and move on.   The true picture, as always, is both simpler and more complex.