|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In many countries, the number of children per woman is declining, but researchers are still struggling to assess all the causes of this decline.
In many countries, the number of children per woman is declining, but researchers are still struggling to assess all the causes of this decrease. Two recently published American studies point to the same suspect: the smartphone.
Smartphone owners have fewer social interactions and therefore fewer sexual relationships in real life, the researchers suggest.
The fertility rate has decreased by 22% in the United States since 2007, and scientists have hypothesized that the sharp decline observed since then is linked to the arrival of Apple’s iPhone that same year.
To confirm their theory, two scientists from Middlebury University relied on the fact that between 2007 and 2011, the iPhone was available in the United States through only one carrier, AT&T.
They compared fertility rates in areas covered by AT&T with those that were not, and therefore, theoretically, without iPhone users.
American counties with iPhone access experienced a greater decline in the number of children per woman than those without, the authors found in their study, published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The decline is particularly pronounced among younger people (15-24 years old). “The decline in fertility is concentrated primarily among young people and is largely reflected in the decrease in unintended births,” they write.
The authors suggest that this decline should be attributed less to the cost of raising a child than to “a lack of social interaction and sexual activity.”
“As smartphones became more widespread, time spent with friends in person and sexual activity have fallen sharply, alongside a rise in the consumption of pornography, a possible substitute for sexuality between two people,” write Caitlin Myers and Ezekiel Hooper.The two authors emphasize that this is not the sole cause of the decline in the number of children per woman, but rather a significant factor over which pro-natalist policies implemented by many countries, such as France and South Korea, based on economic incentives, have little influence.
Two economists from the University of Cincinnati, Nathan Hudson and Hernan Moscoso Boedo, extended this hypothesis to 128 countries.
They analyzed World Bank data on smartphone penetration rates and adolescent fertility rates.
They found that the decline in fertility rates accelerated with the widespread adoption of smartphones, a phenomenon observed in countries “with fundamentally different health, social, economic, and cultural contexts.”In their study published in May, the authors conclude that there is a “common global technological shock”.
