The sudden plummet in global childbearing began at exactly the same time as the ascendance of smartphones and personal digital entertainment, leading to a ‘coupling crisis’, warns sociologist Dr Alice Evans of King’s College, London.
As has been periodically (and slightly breathlessly) reported for some time, Elon Musk has had 13 children with (at least) four mothers.
No, wait, it may be 14 because a paternity suit is under way. For any average person, this would seem a little eccentric, even with some leeway for his richly displayed narcissism. But Musk has gone on record many times, urgently warning about population collapse. Perhaps this is simply his contribution to mitigating what he sees as a global crisis.
Is it a global crisis? According to sociologist Dr Alice Evans of King’s College, it is indeed. She has been studying the subject for a long time and has been very vocal about it. I listened to her on a recent podcast titled Interesting Times, and she went out of her way to disabuse her host (as well as me) of a common misconception.
Most people believe that, as secularism and education (both male and female) spread across the world during the previous century, they were accompanied by reproductive education (and rights), which have been the main contributor to the falling rates of childbirth.
