Tweets sent per day (Twitter/X)

Tweets per day and instant ramen consumption both reached spectacular heights in 2020, which suggests that humanity was trying to do two things simultaneously and was not very successful at either. The noodles at least had a purpose. The tweets, mostly, did not.

Both surged in 2020 for the same reason: a locked-down world had nothing to do but eat cheap carbs and refresh a timeline. Global instant ramen production leapt about 9% on pandemic stockpiling, while daily tweet volume rose sharply as Twitter became the newsroom-of-record for a confusing and frightening year. Hot water and hot takes, served simultaneously.

So we are left with a planet simultaneously feeding itself the easiest possible meal and the noisiest possible media. Neither filled the hole. Both were ordered regardless.