As governments around the world struggle with ways to reverse plunging birth rates, new U.S. studies suggest they have ignored a key culprit – the smartphone.
“Is the iPhone Birth Control?” asked a paper published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, delving into why U.S. fertility rates have fallen by 22 percent since 2007.
For a while, experts linked the decline to the recession that struck in 2008 when the global financial system nearly imploded, driving millions of people into hardship. But when the economy picked up, a rebound in births never came.
Myriad other reasons have been posited, such as increased use of contraception, more female education, and growing housing or childcare costs. However, no clear cause has been established.
My n=1 says yes.
The certain dopamine hit from phone use tends to rival an uncertain good shag possibility. Thus, phubbing wins.
It’s not about shagging rates but about birth rates. You don’t have to shag all the time to have kids.
More likely people don’t have kids because they want to spend more time doing fun things. Like watching Netflix.