It has been verified statistically – not quite the same thing as being truly ‘verified’ – that the introduction of the i-phone significantly decreased fertility amongst women. As the abstract for the study says:
Taken together, these cohort effects imply that the diffusion of the iPhone deepened the decline in births among women under 30 while suppressing the rise in births among older women. Overall, the diffusion of the iPhone explains 33–52% of the decline in the general fertility rate among women aged 15–44. National-survey evidence on time use and sexual behavior is consistent with the iPhone reducing in-person interactions, increasing pornography use, and reducing sexual frequency.
Why ’33 to 52′ percent? Odd. Of course, this is correlative, even if causes may be assumed and attributed with some degree of plausibility. At first, reading the title, I thought that i-phones themselves decreased fertility, by some physiological means: lowering sperm count or ovum vitality by their modulated electromagnetic waves. This may be true, especially if one keeps one’s cell phone in one’s pocket while in use, near some, shall we say, vital organs. But this paper focuses on the behavioral and social impact of the i-phone, which seems irrefutable: That is, the decline in ‘in-person’ interactions, which are requisite for romance, courtship, and marriage. Add to this pornography, which is a plague worse than the bubonic version, especially for men, but also for women: Too many now seek that remedium concupiscentiae by means that are no longer social and reciprocal – and sacramentally graced by holy matrimony – but rather by solitary, solipsistic ‘self-abuse’, as it has been quaintly called, corrupting the soul and rendering one incapable of regular reproduction.
There are other reasons for the cliff-like drop-off in fertility rates: After advent of the i-phone was the MeToo movement, which made male-female relationships all the more complicated, as Tal Bachman points out. Even asking a woman out, or complimenting her in any way, may be construed as ‘assault’, and inviting a woman to dance at a wedding is fraught, insofar as such as still done. The mosh-pit, group gyrations common at such events are only dancing by dim and distant analogy. Tal’s lament is ironic: The son of Randy Bachman, he was the composer of the 1999 hit song ‘She’s So High Above Me‘. How quaint that now seems! Every woman is now ‘high above’ every man, at least in hiring priority, in the long shadow of feminism and its cousin, DEI. The ongoing and persistent discrimination against normal, heterosexual men, regardless of how capable they may be, is – whatever else one may say of it – not conducive to healthy marriages and family life.
But back to the i-phone and its purported deleterious reproductive effects, which, although true enough, we should accept with some reserve, for it’s not necessary for mobile phones or any technology to lead to such a tragic outcome. One can contain their use, or even put their messaging and other capacities to lead to courtship and marriage, in the right and proper way. All technology is a tool, a means to an end, for a particular purpose – in this case, eventual person to person, incarnational relationship. Technology is good, so long as it perfects us, and does not degrade us, or lead to a lessening of our existence. Or, in this case, help put us out of existence.
L’Cheim, l’cheim – to life, dear reader, to life.
