Discussion

• @yacinemtb Kache on x

  YouTube shorts is hitting relatively uneducated societies like a nuclear bomb man

• @kunktation Benjamin Kunkel on x

  The right is going to keep trying & failing to address this situation with racist & chauvinist pronatalism—but it also creates a huge opportunity for a new proudly pro-immigration politics in any halfway prosperous country [image]

• @dineshgovender Dinesh Govender on x

  We used to joke about our grandparents having many kids because there was no TV. Smartphones looked at TVs and said “Hold my beer!” Less young adult in-person socialising Fewer couples Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once https://www.ft.com/... via @ft

• @alecmacgillis Alec MacGillis on x

  “In country after country, the birth rate plunged after introduction of smartphones, no matter what the previous trend was. The younger the age group, the more pronounced the downturn—a mirror image of phone usage patterns.” @jburnmurdoch, so persuasive: https://www.ft.com/...

• @can @can on x

  obvi i shit on meta for being a fundamentally unethical business but the fact that apple gets away unscathed from this is also worth thinking about. maybe our only hope is having execs with kids now.

• @stefanfschubert Stefan Schubert on x

  American women who have children have more than previously, but this is more than offset by fewer women having children in the first place. In many rich countries, declining fertility rates are now driven by fewer people having children. By @jburnmurdoch [image]

• @statesdj David States MD PhD on x

  Between obesity tanking fertility and cell phones tanking interest, no wonder birth rates are falling [image]

• @nour_alkhatib Nour Alkhatib on x

  1/ New study blames phones for declining birth rates. Convenient. You get to point at an object instead of unpacking why people no longer want kids.

• @jesusferna7026 Jesús Fernández-Villaverde on x

  At the FT today, John Burn-Murdoch ( @jburnmurdoch ) has an excellent article describing how fertility is declining everywhere at the same time: [link] He quotes me and, even better, draws the reader's attention to my work with Gustavo Ventura, @King_ofSweden , and Wen Yao on “Th…

• @paulg Paul Graham on x

  If Steve Jobs were still alive, he would have the moral authority to face and maybe even to solve this problem. But I doubt anyone in the phone business now does. [image]

• @lugaricano Luis Garicano on x

  No smoking gun, but the preponderance of evidence points to smartphones, not economics, as the culprit for the global drop in fertility:  • In the US and UK, births fell first and fastest in areas that got 4G earliest  • Birth rates were stable in the US, UK and Australia until 2…

• @fuckedupyogis Kanye East on x

  I honestly don't think it's the smartphones. But if it is it would be the most hilarious explanation for birth rates crashing. Developed ape got too mesmerized by shining screen in his hands and forgot to reproduce.

• @jusdayda @jusdayda on x

  Please overlay the Great Recession dates with ge below metric And include birth rates from 1800 please Longevity leads to lower birth rates Humans living 50 years past ability to give birth = lower birth rates. [image]

• @bowtiedcrake @bowtiedcrake on x

  It was 2008 GFC and not iPhones that collapsed birth rates Labour had been devalued and never quite recovered. The youth can't buy the same homes their parents bought for the same man hours even if they're smarter and more qualified.

• @bladeofthes BladeoftheSun on x

  Birth rates have nothing to do with phones and everything to do with enforced poverty. Most children and young adults will never own their home, and therefore never have any money to provide a decent life for children. This is the real cause.

• @apostructura @apostructura on x

  This actually supports the smartphone hypothesis. The working class got one-shotted by smartphones [image]

• Bertram Lai Bertram Lai on linkedin

  This research should be a warning to investors in social platforms.  The demographic collapse is going to lead to a re-ordering of geopolitical power and governments will take heed. …

• Eric Mathewson Eric Mathewson on linkedin

  Since this is LinkedIn and focused on work, this is an important article from FTimes.  There are dramatic changes going on in demography from the impact of smartphones. …

• Hernan Moscoso Boedo Hernan Moscoso Boedo on linkedin

  Pleased that our work with Nathan Hudson on digital technology and fertility was featured today in the front page of the Financial Times. …

• @pwgtennant Peter Tennant on bluesky

  Anyone see the piece in the FT by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com hypothesising that mobile phone ownership explains declining fertility rates?  —  My view is “that's an interesting hypothesis that is impossible to study”.  —  But maybe we should debate identification strategies!?  —  www.f…

• @frankpasquale Frank Pasquale on bluesky

  “All of these inflection points coincided with the mass adoption of smartphones in local markets — as measured by Google searches for mobile apps.”  —  www.ft.com/content/fba3...

• @natashawalter Natasha Walter on bluesky

  Interesting article by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com linking phone use to falling birth rates strangely mentions only the effects that phones have on reducing socialising & raising women's expectations - completely ignores the massive effect of spreading misogyny & p0rn among men. www.ft.…

• @timbale Tim Bale on bluesky

  This is one of the most fascinating (and, in the long term, worrying) articles I've read recently.  From @jburnmurdoch.ft.com, natch.

• @1t2ls Elliot on bluesky

  Huh, a non-ideologically-motivated birth rate article that interprets data with a degree of sobriety?  Amazing.  —  TL;DR: Cell phones and social media appear to be a massive drag (globally) on the formation of real human relationships that lead to kids.  And housing is too expen…

• @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social Jeff Jarvis on mastodon

  This will launch a thousand awful headlines blaming phones and stirring up the creepy pronatalists.  There are also a thousand factors at work: start with a fucked up economy and world.  —  Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once  —  https://www.ft.com/...