Global smartphone shipments

As feral hogs have colonized more American states with the territorial ambition of a species that has read no zoning laws and would not care if it had, global smartphone shipments have risen with almost identical determination. The correlation spans only six data points, which is barely enough to fit in a hog's attention span, but the coefficient of 0.963 suggests that wherever the hogs go, the phones follow. One imagines the hogs ordering their own devices, perhaps to coordinate their interstate expansion.

Feral hog populations expanded from about 35 states in 2010 to all lower 48 by 2020, driven by their remarkable adaptability, high reproductive rate, and the unintentional assistance of humans who transported them for hunting purposes. Global smartphone shipments grew from about 300 million units to over 1.4 billion during the same window, driven by falling component costs, 4G network expansion, and the entry of budget manufacturers into developing markets. Both trends are S-curves of proliferation: hogs spread because they are resilient generalists; smartphones spread because they became cheap enough for everyone. Six data points is not enough to draw serious conclusions, but it is enough to note that both curves measure the same thing: something that starts small and then gets everywhere fast.

Six data points connecting feral hogs to smartphones is a reminder that any two things growing during the same decade will correlate, and that the temptation to find meaning in the correlation is itself a form of invasive species. The hogs do not use smartphones. The smartphones do not attract hogs. Both simply multiplied. That is what things do.