John Burn-Murdoch on phones and fertility
John Burn-Murdoch discusses the relationship between smartphones and fertility rates. He argues that social media acts as a technological shock that accelerates cultural changes affecting fertility. The article also highlights the importance of both birth rates and child survival rates in understanding fertility trends.
- ▪John Burn-Murdoch suggests that smartphones and social media amplify existing cultural changes impacting fertility.
- ▪He compares the influence of social media on fertility to the effect of GLP-1s on weight loss.
- ▪The discussion emphasizes that both the number of births and the survival of children are significant factors in fertility rates.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
John Burn-Murdoch on phones and fertility by Tyler Cowen May 20, 2026 at 1:46 am in Web/Tech From my email: Hi folks, appreciate the discussion of the piece here, as ever. I just wanted to chime in briefly with an analogy that speaks to one of the ways I think about the causal mechanism here, and to my mind pushes back against the argument that since past declines in fertility didn’t come from smartphones etc the current decline can’t either. • In the past, weight loss generally came from sustained dieting and exercise • Now it overwhelmingly comes from injecting GLP-1s • In the same way that GLP-1s are a technological shock that amplifies/accelerates the old mechanism (eating less), social media is a technological shock that amplifies/accelerates the old mechanism (cultural…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Marginal Revolution.
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