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.
As with all “is phone bad?” articles, is it phone or is it addictive recommendation algorithms on media sites
Fire is a pretty useful tool until it’s being used for arson
We tried prohibition for alcohol. Didn’t work.
We’ve had more luck using social pressure and laws short of outright prohibition for tobacco. This might work for phones, too. But, we can’t even get most elementary schools to ban phones in the classroom.
Ultimately, addiction hurts the addicted, and not everyone becomes addicted, so blaming the supply is pointless.