US mobile phone subscriptions per 100 peopleUS per capita ice cream consumption
American ice cream consumption per person dropping as American mobile subscriptions saturate. The pint went down as the phone went up. The country swapped one indulgence for another with the quiet, unconscious efficiency only an entire population can manage.
US per-capita ice cream consumption fell from about 22 to under 18 pounds per person across this window as the dessert category fragmented (frozen yogurt, gelato, novelties) and cold-counter share gave way to the broader portion-control trend. Mobile subscriptions per hundred grew from about 50 to over 100 in the same period as smartphones became ubiquitous and many people carried two devices. Two unrelated lines moving in opposite directions, sharing a window because the same 21 years substituted screen time for after-dinner servings in a way that, statistically, shows up everywhere.
Some old indulgences quietly retire. The freezer lost; the pocket won.
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