Porn consumption drops more than 9% during the independence process in Catalonia

In this article we want to shed light on how the independence process of Catalonia has affected users of adult content. Has this process increased the libido of Catalans? Has it made it so that at particular moments there has been an urgent need to clear one’s head and get away from the process? Or the opposite, has the independence process of Catalonia lead Catalan citizens to avoid the consumption of adult content and give priority to the socio-political events of their region?

To do so, we will look at certain key dates of this process and answer the questions we are asking.

If we compare two identical ranges, one with the conflict in play, October 1 – October 29 2017, another without the process underway, August 27 – September 24 2017, we see that in general it appears that yes, the process has caused Catalan users to consume less adult content, specifically 6.80% less than in a similar period immediately beforehand.

infographic complete

Obviously, not all of Catalonia has behaved in the same way and because of that we will see what has happened with the four most representative cities of the four provinces into which the autonomous region of Catalonia is divided.

the autonomous region of Catalonia

As we can see, the process has affected cities like Barcelona and Tarragona much more, which is at least a bit odd, since Girona supposedly is the city which has always supported the independence movement more and it looks like in this city we have lost less than 1%.

Going into detail in the cities with more reduction in traffic during these days we find: Barcelona (Barcelona Province), Salou (Tarragona Province), El Prat del Llobregat (Barcelona Province), Tarragona (Tarragona Province) and Vilanova i la Geltru (Barcelona Province).

On the contrary, the cities in which the independence movement appears not only to have not made a dent in the consumption of adult content, but instead helped increase the libido of its citizens, we have: L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona Province), Sabadell (Barcelona Province), Sant Cugat del Valles (Barcelona Province), Terrassa (Barcelona Province) and Lleida (Llerida Province).

The dates we have used as key dates in this independence process are:

  • September 6 -> Call for referendum is approved
  • September 11 -> National Catalonia Day, la Diada
  • October 1 -> Day of the referendum
  • October 2 -> First work day after the referendum
  • October 10 -> Referendum results and Unilateral Declaration of Independence for 8 seconds
  • October 27 -> Unilateral declaration of independence

September 6 – Call approved

On this day the Government of Catalonia approves the call for referendum, giving it a date in the Parliament. No great changes are seen, meaning the people didn’t pay much attention to what would be the first step towards the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, or at least the consumption of adult content was not affected on this day in Catalonia.

September 11 – Flag day

That day Catalonia celebrates la Diada, with the goal of commemorating the Catalan national day. On this occasion the call was at 5 pm and the streets started to be cut off by the Mossos (Catalan police squadron) at 3 pm.
As we can see right from the beginning, people seemed to have something else on their minds. The trending line was following the same curve as the previous Monday, but this time it was parallel. In short, we had less people visiting our websites than the Monday immediately before.

diada day graph

As is apparent, the difference would be much greater in the key time zone from 2-7 pm. People had gotten out on the street and at this moment they would not have the privacy, or even the desire, to consume our content.

If we go into detail about which city abandoned us the most that day, meaning the one in which we suppose the day was most centered around the group celebration, getting out on the street and sharing this special day for Catalonia with friends, we have: Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona, Sabadell and Terrassa. They are the cities with the highest loss of traffic during the day, with one of them having losses reaching up to 20% of users compared to the previous Monday.

On the contrary, some cities have much less population and as such much less traffic coming from these cities to our sites. Cities such as Manlleu, L’Escala and Vilanova i la Geltru improved their data with respect to the same day the previous week. But as we indicated this was not enough to compensate for the amount of users lost in important cities and keep our traffic in Catalonia from falling 12% in the total count for the day.

As a detail, it can be seen that at the last hour of the night the line from the current day surpasses that of the previous Monday, which tells us that many people, upon arriving home after the celebration, decided to pay homage and finish this special day in the best way possible (for us at least).

October 1 – Referendum day

At 9 in the morning, the opening of school doors was called for, and because of that first thing in the morning the ballot boxes and ballots started moving around Catalonia and with them our users. They abandoned the heat of their homes on Sunday morning with the intention of voting for the independence of Catalonia, and from this comes the first drop seen in the following image. The drop lasts until lunch time at 1-2 pm, where it appears that people come back to visit us, although without reaching the levels of the previous Sunday.

After lunch voting news, police charges and the confrontations between mossos and state security forces started reaching people. With that began the mobilizations that once again got users out on the street and caused the second drop of the day. This drop lasted until dinner time at 9 pm, when it appears people returned to normal life. A busy day in Catalonia in general, which can be seen clearly in the four main cities in the provinces of Catalonia:

GRAPH DAY OF THE REFERENDUM

As we see in all of the cities there are losses, even though it appears the most cosmopolitan city of all of them, Barcelona, and where there supposedly were more confrontations, was not as affected as the others in terms of traffic. In this city we dropped only 6.97%, whereas the other three cities had drops of between 11% and 12%.

October 2 – The hangover

The day following the referendum is a tough day. As can be seen in the following image the process hasn’t favored us and much less all of the conflicts generated the previous day. We were 9.49% below normal and as we see in the image there is no specific drop for any specific incident, instead throughout the day the current data line is parallel to that of the previous Monday, without surpassing it at any moment during the day.

Mondays usually are good, people return from the weekend with urges, but it appears that this time the hangover after what happened causes Catalan citizens to pay attention to other things.

GRAPH OCTOBER 2

October 10 – The day arrived

The president appears in the parliament to define the roadmap after the referendum. In addition, it is speculated that he may declare independence which will cause a larger following of the appearance.

GRAPH OCTOBER 10

After a delay of a little more than an hour, at 7:15 pm the appearance of the president in the Parliament begins. This appearance in part is about the story that has led Catalonia to the point it is at today and in addition yields the most surreal 8 seconds in the history of Catalonia, the president decides to declare independence and immediately after requests the parliament to revoke said declaration to enter into a process of dialogue with the central government.

The appearance attracts our users and they abandon us -18% less users in this 7 pm time frame. But we don’t know if it’s because of the surrealism of the situation they are living or because they think they are independent, it seems like upon returning to their devices they give a push to the traffic and the line that marks the trend of the current day surpasses that of the Tuesday immediately prior.

This obviously is not enough and we finish the day with 5% less users than the same day the previous week.

October 27 – Today yes!

The president comes out to speak again. Before he begins it isn’t clear what he is going to speak about, if he will call for elections, proclaim independence, respond to the central Government, communicate to the people that led him to the presidency of the parliament that he will go to Belgium (ah no, this is later and will be done out of sight), …

Beginning first thing in the morning, there is movement and the news flows in one direction after another. At first social networks light up against the president, even wishing the worst of luck for his future. Maybe these people didn’t have in mind, when they gave their support, that beforehand it was just the opposite, a person and a party that made decisions in the same direction as the party that today heads the central government, an “undercover boss” I might say, someone that already has an escape plan in case things get ugly.

It seems that the pressures make everything return to normality and follow the path of the left. To be a country independent of Spain is the goal and they will not let anyone out of the car, at least not without committing a crime, like their old friends. But this time everyone will be watching, no plots organized behind the backs of the people, no B ballot boxes,…, we’ll leave it at that. The president came out to do what he had to do, to declare independence, and for that he needed the support of a simple majority of the parliament.

GRAPH OCTOBER 27

At 3 pm the movement began, when the serious companies let their workers live their private life and begin the weekend. They decided to start a new path, far from Spain, without the leashes of a monarchic democracy, because they now are republicans (independent) and they do it, finally!

In the graph above you can see how during the time frame from 3-4 pm on Friday the 27th of October, 2017 we fell 21 percentage points in comparison with the previous Friday. When it appeared that we were going to begin the best weekend in the history of our services (there is a time change and we won’t hesitate to count the 2 am hour twice in the same day, but that stays between us), they decided it was the best moment to vote on the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in the parliament. As they have learned from the central government, if you do it, better they don’t know you are doing it, and that it be close to the weekend so the people get over their anger, and so it can be together with another event that grabs more attention. So the vote is hidden and what is put on my ballot can’t be seen, and they will not have any proof against me.

After the results of the vote many people went out to celebrate in the street. Many people kept watching Ferreras put up with 17 straight hours of news coverage and it appears that porn remained relegated to second priority. It wouldn’t be until 9 pm when all returned to normality, because whether you are in this country, a different one or a made-up one, no one is going to take the time for self-satisfaction away from you.

We close the day with -9.49% of users in Catalonia, and the main cities have closed the day with the following user data: Barcelona -12,33%, Girona -8,94%, Tarragona -3,13% and Lleida -5,90%.

declaration of independence day

Conclusion

It has been a long process and will continue on the 21st of December with the elections for the Parliament of Catalonia. To give ourselves an idea of what could happen, in the last general elections we lost 5% of users in Catalonia, comparing that Sunday with the one immediately prior. Seeing the following this entire process has had and the importance of making use of democracy on part of all of the Catalan people, I think the numbers will be similar in style to those of the Diada day with -12% of Catalan users visiting our sites. Nonetheless, if it’s okay with you guys we will leave the rest for a new episode in which we certainly will have many things to share with you.

Download images

There are no comments.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Navigation