We now have a 21-year-old in the family.
Maddie hit the milestone this week, lucky to have it on St. Patrick’s Day, not so lucky for it to land on a Monday. She doesn’t drink much (she gets that from Tara), but it sounds like she went after it on her birthday (that’s from me).
It comes on the heels of Noelle becoming a newly minted adult on January 1st. We’re officially “child”-less.
In nearly 400 of these weekly missives, the most common recurring themes have probably been political tribalism, our collective need for empathy, and various jokes or rants about my last name. Trailing slightly behind those is the fleeting nature of time. To say it flies is a gross understatement.
When I picture them in my head, Maddie is cemented at 6, Noelle at 11. I don’t know why. I just do.
The funny thing is that the truism in our family for years was that Maddie was my doppelgänger – extroverted, attention and thrill-seeking. Noelle was Tara’s, more introverted, calculating, a perfectionist. I wouldn’t say they’ve flip-flopped, but Noelle and I are now far more alike. Same, too, of Maddie and Tara. Again, I don’t know why. It just happened.
Of all the phases of parenting – countless ones thus far – the only thing that hasn’t changed is the extent to which I’m wrapped around their respective fingers. And they know it.
Whether it was hundreds of tired hours reading Winnie the Pooh books in the voices of all the characters, planning increasingly complicated Easter Egg hunts, or dressing in full princess regalia (me, not them) at the Renaissance Festival, I’ve done what I was told. For a lifelong self-centered narcissist, I never imagined ceding so much power to someone else. But here we are.
Fortunately – although admittedly unfair for Tara – I’m effectively counterbalanced. It’s not that she wouldn’t do anything for our kids. It’s that she knows sometimes the best thing to do for them is to say ‘no.’ She threw toys away when they fought over them and grounded them at the first hint of entitlement. She taught them rigor and discipline. I never tried to sabotage that, not simply because I didn’t want to sleep on the couch, but because I knew she was right.
Nonetheless, I was the beloved good cop. Now, they’re old enough to understand why Tara was the better cop all along.
We always say in our business, “Everything affects everything, and everything is constantly changing.” This might be even truer in life.
It’s just crazy how fast it happens.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
People are eating dinner earlier. I seldom start this part of the email with something not economy-related, but in our 3 Things to Know this week, we stumbled upon a trend that blew me away. For the first time in the many years we’ve tracked it, a majority of U.S. adults now say they typically eat dinner prior to 6 pm. On average, we’re collectively eating dinner 20 minutes earlier than we did 6 years ago. The pandemic explains some of it, but the trend has accelerated far more over the past year. We also looked at data on library usage, which, while falling, is still alive and well. Finally, we examined Americans’ favorite type of pizza crust. Thin crust is the clear #1, but stuffed crust is gaining fast among Gen Z.
Consumers are cutting back on streaming services, but more live programming could bring them back. Another sign of the times, Americans are shedding all kinds of subscriptions (magazines, gyms, etc.), and streaming platforms are no longer immune. The winners will compete on the availability of live broadcasts (especially sports), which explains the land grabs Netflix and Amazon Prime, in particular, have been making. One big challenge, however, is the continued unreliability of signal quality across many parts of the country. Over two-thirds of U.S. adults report having previous issues watching streamed live events. All the great content in the world doesn’t matter if it can’t load.
The pandemic déjà vu keeps piling up. You know I couldn’t go an entire Saturday without mentioning the economic shit-show surrounding us at the moment. So much reminds me of the early days of COVID, right up to the hundreds of people who signed up for our “Uncertainty” webinar on Thursday (we usually get 1/3rd as many). Some of the content you’ve seen here. Lots you haven’t. We shared data about how people are hoarding, staying home, and holding their wallets tight. But we also went a lot further, looking at how economic fears are driving switching behavior in categories like mobile carriers and banks, and how consumer confidence varies widely among customers of different competitive brands. If you missed it and you’re a client, let me know and I’ll send the deck and recording. If you’re not a client, you probably should be.
Women are increasingly turning to video and mobile games to chill out. The percentage of Americans who report playing video games “at least occasionally” reached record heights (at least since we started tracking it in 2012) last year. Same, too, of daily gamers, which have increased steadily since 2022. Unsurprisingly, gamers skew younger, but a hefty 42% of adults aged 45 and older say they play a lot to a little. Mobile games are the overwhelming choice among Xers and Boomers, while Gen Zs lean toward the more elaborate online and console options. When asked why, gamers most commonly cite relaxation and de-stressing as their primary reason. It’s particularly true among female players. Whatever it takes, ladies.
In a lousy housing market, tons of Americans are browsing real estate websites for fun. Big news hit the homebuying industry last week when the artist formerly known as Rocket Mortgage (now, Rocket Companies) dropped a cool $1.75B to buy the online real estate platform, Redfin. The combined entity has a long way to go before it catches Zillow as the digital house-shopping (or house porn) site of choice. Across either Zillow or Redfin, people are more than twice as likely to use them for window browsing than to earnestly shop to buy. One thing going for Rocket/Redfin is their regular users are much more likely to think now is a good time to buy a home.
One more awesome thing to share this week:
- Much of the data you’ve seen here the past couple of weeks was highlighted in a great article by Jack Neff in AdAge this week. It’s worth reading.
The most popular questions this week:
Have you ever invested in a meme coin?
Have you ever seen a bear in person?
Are you a big fan of craft cocktails?
Have you ever found anything valuable at a thrift store?
Answer Key: Nope, never even thought about it; Very much, but not as much as Tara; Lots of times. Remember, I’m half redneck; You had me at “cocktails;” No, but at a yard sale.
Hoping you’re well.
JD
