The birth rate in the U.S. has dropped by an astonishing 22% since 2007. Are smartphones to blame?

Yes, according to a groundbreaking new study by Middlebury economist Caitlin Myers. Her smartphone study is garnering national attention this week, confirming an idea that people have long speculated about but until now have lacked data. Myers and co-author Ezekiel Hooper showed that from 2007 to 2011, after the iPhone was introduced, there was a sharp decline in births, up to half of which can be attributed to the smartphone. They say that smartphones have led to "reducing in-person interactions, increasing pornography use, and reducing sexual frequency."

Myers says a declining birth rate is not necessarily bad, but that there are "many aspects of it that really concern me, aspects that relate to economic growth and supporting older generations, but also questions of what does this mean for humans."

"Everybody's just doom scrolling on their phone alone and isolated and not forming relationships."

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