Active geocaches worldwide

As active geocaches worldwide have increased, US online dating revenue has grown with a correlation of 0.990 that connects hiding containers in the woods to finding partners on the internet with the GPS-enabled confidence of two activities that both require a smartphone, a willingness to meet strangers, and a tolerance for disappointment. The cache is hidden, the profile is posted, and the chart finds both with the precision of a well-calibrated algorithm.

Active geocaches grew from about 1.5 million to over 3 million between 2005 and 2022 as the hobby expanded globally. Online dating revenue grew from about 1.5 billion to over 5 billion. Both trends track smartphone adoption and the willingness to use technology for real-world social interaction: geocaching uses GPS to find things, dating apps use algorithms to find people. Both activities migrated from niche internet subcultures to mainstream smartphone activities during the same period. The shared variable is the smartphone-enabled social life—activities that require both a device and a willingness to show up in person.

Eighteen years of geocaches and dating apps is a correlation between two smartphone-era activities that bridge the digital and physical worlds. Both require creating a profile, navigating to a location, and hoping what you find matches the description. The cache is at the coordinates. The date is at the restaurant. The success rate varies. The chart, as always, does not track outcomes.