Remix.run Logo
echelon 3 hours ago

Birth rates took a dip with broadband, smartphones, and TikTok.

Dopamine and attention sinks are pulling society in directions counter to evolutionary programming. Our runtime algorithms optimize for different things.

No value judgment, but it's interesting. I haven't had kids (yet?), and I feel the internet (and the career that revolves around it) is the biggest reason why.

aaronbrethorst an hour ago | parent [-]

Citation needed

echelon 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

I just looked at the graph before posting. Wasn't easy to share crude data so I didn't link it.

I see other people are talking about this:

https://roytriggs.medium.com/internet-use-and-birth-rates-an...

https://fortune.com/well/2025/03/28/phones-declining-birth-r...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/opinion/dating-marriage-c...

The phone killed babies tracks with my intuition about this. Data correlates.