There is no doubt that smartphones have changed our lives. But how much of this change has been bad, and how much of it has been good?
As reported by The New York Times and Digital Trends, Smartphones are to blame for declining birth rates in the US and across 128 countries.
The original iPhone only worked on AT&T's network, and this gave researchers a natural experiment. Counties with strong AT&T coverage got early smartphone access, while counties without it largely did not. Comparing fertility data across those two groups, the researchers concluded that iPhone access drove as much as half of the US birth rate decline between 2007 and 2011, with the strongest effect in the age group of 15-24.
And the reason? The researchers point to a shift away from in-person socialising, greater access to pornography, and better awareness of contraception and abortion options.
A separate study took a wider view. In that study, the researchers examined World Bank data covering 128 countries and found that teenage fertility rates fell sharply once smartphones became mainstream, regardless of differences in healthcare systems, religion, or economic conditions. In the US, they found counties with faster broadband and 4G coverage saw steeper declines in teen birth rates.
But as expected, not everyone is convinced, despite the results of these 2 studies. Baruch College economist Theodore Joyce points out that teen birth rates were already falling before 2007, and says the smartphone hypothesis, while plausible, remains unproven.