this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026
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I... Look, can we be real for a minute? None of these are why people aren't having kids.
Climate change is primarily affecting the global south, countries that have had the slowest drop in birth rates. Air quality globally has been increasing for decades. Yes, the current generation has less attainability than their parents, but modern life quality is still higher than any point in history. Even if you were to attribute it to that decrease, there have been decreases in resources between generations before without anywhere near the dropoff of births. Sumerian peasants didn't have this level of decrease during concurrent wars and famine, both demonstrably worse conditions than most people alive will ever face.
Current studies point to one correlative factor: Smartphones. Now, we can discuss why: Personally I believe it is a mix of several reasons, including beneficial ones. I would argue that smartphone have made people more aware than ever of the unfairness of life in modern society, as an example of a beneficial cause. 30 years ago, a woman in Nebraska wouldn't know intimately the firsthand account of a modern genocide, for example. Let me be clear: This is undoubtedly, unequivocally a good thing.
But we also need to address the sheer amount of slop content and unending access. Shortform content is proven to inflict users with symptoms reflective of ADHD and anxiety. Social media is built to make us not just dependent but addicted. The rise of smartphones has been part and parcel to the loss of third spaces; it's not just that people lost community, it's that we have also replaced it with instant access to online communities that cannot and will never be a viable replacement. We let the rich finally build the ultimate circus. And fixing that will not just require a fundamental restructuring of society, but also tough conversations about our responsibility to escape these systems.
Climate collapse, resource depletion, the enshittification of everything and my ever growing misanthropy, are exactly why I'm refusing to procreate.
And no, climate collapse and resource depletion are not just affecting the global south. Not by a long shot.
90% of earths topsoil is at risk of depletion by 2050
Global freshwater demand will exceed supply 40% by 2030
Global human population has surpassed Earthβs sustainable carrying capacity.
Global carbon emissions are still rising
The latest CFSv2 model runs now show the Nino 3.4 SST anomaly forecast peaking at 4.10Β°C in November.
The arctic sea ice extent is declining rapidly and we're likely headed into a Blue Ocean Event later this year, and potentially a double BOE depending on how the El Nino and summer in the southern hemisphere go.
June 2026 came in as the second warmest on record since 1940 at 1.39Β°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial baseline, second only to 2024 at 1.50Β°C above the baseline
The world is likely to exceed a key global warming target soon but the earths alebedo with the declining sea ice and lack of cloud cover will impact these numbers massively and isn't being predicted for, which means that 4.5c above the baseline by 2060 is now possible.
I never said just affecting the south, I said disproportionately. And you're kind of proving my point: Before widespread information access, you probably wouldn't even know. And yes, that is a good thing, as I stressed repeatedly in my post; not all reasons to blame the smartphone are bad, many are even good. It is a good thing people know about climate change. About the human cost of imperialism. About genocide. But that alone doesn't account for the sheer drop, either, and there are negatives to this technology that need to be addressed.
There's more people alive now than ever before. This insane need for infinite increases on a finite planet is why the world is ending.
Smart phones and short form content aren't causing birth rates to decrease, that started decades ago when western women started getting access to contraception and gaining human rights.
A) we don't need infinite growth; what we need is a tapering down so we don't end up with an entire generation spending their golden years in a ditch. B) As I've stated to another user, you're equivocating. Stop that. We've had the same percentile decrease in the last 20 years as we did throughout the previous century; you're looking at two different rates of decrease and calling them the same because they both happen to be decreases. That's not how math works.
Lmao, don't worry about your pension, the water wars will get you long before you're old enough to retire. Billions upon billions of us will die in the next 50 years.
It's more important to you to hold some personal sense of moral superiority than engage with the death of millions; your blasΓ© attitude speaks volumes towards your privilege. I have no doubt that the reason you don't want kids has far less to do with climate change than being able to say you won't because of climate change.
Did that make you feel better? I bet it did. Go on, let it all out. Tell me all the shitty things you've assumed about me because being angry at me is easier than accepting the world is ending.
The world isn't ending.
The demograpic downturn started decades before that, but in the west it was (and to some extent still is) hidden by immigration.
You're obfuscating: It's been well documented that the availability of resources is inversely correlated to birthrates. We've had as much dropoff since the phone as we did since the industrial revolution. You're calling two different rates of drop the same because they're both drops; that's not how math works.
I didn't create demographic trends older than I am to obfuscate anything.
Demographically most of the world has shown an explosion of population as industrialization of agriculture, medicine, and sanitation almost eliminate famines and childhood disease. And then you see the curve go down. Often all the way to negative. This is repeating in other countries, and just like they're catching up faster economically, the social results are following as well. I'm not as sure about other countries, but Canada would have had negative growth since the 80s if not for immigration.
So, while smartphones might be a factor, they can't be the primary or only cause of a trend that predates their existence by over a quarter of a century.
Yeah I agree that smartphones have a huge role to play in lower birth rates all over the globe.
There is a correlation between the adoption of certain entertainment technologies and birth rates, such as TVs becoming widespread causing a small decrease in births, simply because people are spending more free time not being bored. Same thing happened with smartphones, but with a much more drastic impact.
More recently, during 2020 and 2021 the birth rates increased drastically due to the pandemic lockdowns making people bored and with far more free time on their hands.
Birth rates increaaimg durong quarentine sounds intensively dumb. You'rd telling me people went out and got as close to eachother as possible, riskong themselves by doing the exact opposite of the reccomended just because they were bored.
They got close to each other because they were already living together.
Obviously a lot of new relationships didn't magically form during the lockdown.
yep