The launch of smart phones has acted as a catalyst driving forward the precipitous decline in births across the West, according to new research.

Published in the Berlin Review, “The TikTok Baby Bust” by Anna Rotkirch, Research Professor at the Population Research Institute in Finland, argues that the technology had three distinct effects: on life templates and aspirations; on mental health; and on sex, relationship formation and duration.

First, the ideal life presented on screen rarely conveyed the messy rewards of parenting.

In Finland, Family barometers found an increase of childfree ideals in the 2010s, and that social media use is related to more uncertainties about parenthood.

Next, smartphones worsened the mental health of some, and especially young women, at a time when several new studies report lower fertility among people with mental health disorders.

Third, smartphones rewrote the Laws of Love and Dating, contributing to the ‘relationship recession’. Problematic smartphone use also created sexual problems, while merely spending more time on screens lowered relationship satisfaction & duration.