Fertility rates

Is It the Phones?

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Liz Wolfe | 6.11.2026 9:30 AM

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Phones and young people and baby making: Online interaction is "lacking in some essential emotional nutrient that human beings evolved to harvest from the physical proximity of other human beings," writes Noah Smith at his Substack. "Perhaps it's something cognitive—the richness of context that tells you that no, your friend's life isn't perfect just because they posted a cool video of their trip to Europe, and thus you don't need to feel constantly envious and inadequate and left-out. Or perhaps it's something physical—the tiny touch of a high-five or a hug, the simple feeling of the proximity of other human bodies."

"Whatever this emotional nutrient is, our young people are starving for it, while they binge on the cheap sugar-alcohol of emoji reactions and story views," Smith continues. Meanwhile, "the global fertility decline is a long-standing trend. Every country that escapes poverty, urbanizes, and teaches its people to read is going to transition from a high fertility rate (5-7 children per woman) to a much lower rate. Long before the smartphone burst on the scene, most of Europe and the richer parts of East Asia had fallen below replacement-level fertility." Now it's hit the U.S. as well, with a new record low of 1.57 per April's report. (About one-quarter of the fertility rate drop is due to falling rates of teen pregnancy since about 2007, which is an undeniable victory.)

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But "why is fertility falling everywhere across the globe, to such low levels, all at once?" asks Smith. "Whatever the cause is, it can't be something local and parochial. It can't be the effect of America's Great Recession, or........

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