Global data created per year

As global data creation has exploded, the US dog treat market has grown with almost identical enthusiasm, achieving a correlation of 0.995 that suggests either that dogs are generating zettabytes of content or that the same digital economy producing data is also producing the disposable income required to buy artisanal dog biscuits. The data fills the cloud, the treats fill the bowl, and the chart fills with the warm confidence of a scatter plot that has found two things going up at the same time.

Two 2020 surges from the same cause. Pandemic pet adoption and guilty remote workers spoiling their dogs drove treat sales upward, while the shift to videoconferencing, streaming, and remote learning pushed global data creation into new orders of magnitude. Both are measurements of a world that moved indoors and brought a laptop and a dog with it.

Eight years of data and dog treats is a correlation that captures the absurdity of the digital economy: the same infrastructure generating zettabytes of information is also delivering freeze-dried liver snaps to your doorstep. The data doubles, the treats are delivered, and the economy that connects them does not distinguish between a terabyte and a Milk-Bone. Both are products. Both are growing. The dog does not care about the data.