Don't Blame Plunging Birthrates on Phones

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/opinion/iphones-birthrate-decline.html

by xnx • 1 month ago

3 3 1 month ago

xnx• 1 month ago

evil-olive• 1 month ago

yeah, the study this is criticizing [0] is extremely flawed - it tries to treat "parts of the country that got access to the AT&T-exclusive original iPhone" as a natural experiment, but that falls apart because "what parts of the country have the best AT&T coverage" is a terrible natural experiment, it ignores that AT&T service areas are not random, but subject to the same confounding variables that influence birth rates.

but at the same time, I don't trust this author to come up with a better explanation for anything to do with fertility or birthrates.

her byline at the top of the article:

a senior fellow at the Georgetown University Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life

and then buried at the bottom of the article:

a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48444543

RattlesnakeJake• 1 month ago

https://xkcd.com/1138/

Don't Blame Plunging Birthrates on Phones

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