Psychological distress in parents possibly behind low Australian birth rates, not smartphones

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Psychological distress in parents possibly behind low Australian birth rates, not smartphones

22 May 2026

Sixty percent of Australian parents reported experiencing psychological distress, according to the results of the Parenting Today survey, conducted late last year by the Parenting Research Centre.

It has been suggested the impact on the mental health of parents in Australia is contributing to current record low birth rates here.

Psychological distress and poor mental health, are not however the only factors dragging down births both in Australia, and elsewhere in the world. Cost of living pressures and expensive housing are also playing a part. As is, possibly, smartphone usage.

Earlier this week Tyler Cowen, at Marginal Revolution, posted birth rate data from ten countries which generally show a prolonged, and clear, decline in birth rates across the twentieth century.

An uptick is apparent in some nations during the baby-boom, which followed World War II, through to the 1960’s. The overall downward trend in birth rates obviously predate smartphones, and possibly even expensive housing, though.

Apple Intelligence bolsters accessibility features, aiding people with disabilities

21 May 2026

From the Apple Newsroom:

Apple today previewed a suite of accessibility updates that use Apple Intelligence to bring new capabilities to features users rely on every day, including VoiceOver, Magnifier, Voice Control, and Accessibility Reader. Apple also announced on-device generated subtitles for uncaptioned video content coming to the Apple ecosystem, as well as a new feature for Apple Vision Pro users to control compatible wheelchairs with their eyes.

The promised enhanced accessibility features, to be rolled out across a number of Apple devices, seem like they could make a positive difference for people with disabilities.

Apple Intelligence is the name Apple gives to the suite of AI technologies they are developing.

It might be argued there are not a great many favourable applications of AI technology, but these initiatives could well be an exception.

Falling birth rates and smartphones: a technology as malevolent as AI?

19 May 2026

Om Gupta, writing for India Today:

The researchers believe smartphones fundamentally changed how young people interact with each other. More time shifted online, while face-to-face socialising declined. According to the study, this reduction in in-person interaction may have contributed to lower fertility rates. The pattern appears to extend beyond just the US and UK. Financial Times analysis found that birth rates in several countries began falling sharply around the same time smartphones became widely adopted.

Gupta cites research published a few days ago by the Financial Times (paywalled).

I doubt the blame for the reported decline in birth rates globally can be placed wholly at the feet of smartphones, but it’s not unreasonable to believe they are playing some role.

It’s hardly empirical proof, but increasingly I need to sidestep people walking along the footpath who are focused only on their smartphone, almost oblivious to the presence of anyone else. If people can’t go without phones during a short walk from one place to another, when are they ever supposed to focus on other things, let alone meeting, and interacting with others, face-to-face?

I’m a smartphone user the same as everyone else, and couldn’t begin to imagine managing without one. But if indeed it is the case that smartphones are contributing — at least partly — to falling birth rates, shouldn’t we be alarmed?

In recent weeks we have been witnessing a growing, at times hostile, backlash against AI technologies. People are angry and fearful. They are concerned by the threat AI poses to their livelihoods. Of the three epoch-defining shifts in technology — to use the words of John Gruber — in recent decades, being the web, smartphones, and AI, it is the last, AI, that is seen as malevolent.

Or the more malevolent.

But if birth rates are falling across the world, and smartphone usage has something to do with that, can we continue to regard these devices as anything less than pernicious?

But pointing the finger of blame at smartphones is the easy part. What to do about the problem, if that’s even how the situation can be described, is far from straightforward.

It somewhat feels like we are painting ourselves into a corner, if we haven’t already, with, really all three of these epoch-defining shifts in technology.

Artemis astronauts take smartphones to the Moon, Instagram goes interplanetary (sort of)

7 February 2026

Jared Isaacman, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator, writing on X/Twitter:

NASA astronauts will soon fly with the latest smartphones, beginning with Crew-12 and Artemis II. We are giving our crews the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and video with the world.

When it comes to photos from the Artemis flights, expect copious selfies from both deep-space and the Lunar surface.

Smartphone ban sees NYC students talk, play cards, use Polaroid cameras, daydream

15 September 2025

New York City recently introduced a smartphone ban in public schools. While students are not barred from owning phones, they must store their devices away during school hours.

While it’s early days, students appear to be adjusting well to life without smartphones, even if it’s only for a few hours a day. School-goers have taken to playing cards, engaging in face-to-face conversation, using Polaroid cameras, and even daydreaming, a favourite activity of mine both during and outside classes, back in my school days.

Needless to say though, some students have figured out ways to circumvent the ban, with some using burner phones they have obtained. The school hours ban seems like a good idea, and being without a smartphone for a relatively short time daily is hardly the end of the world. Some enforced non-smartphone time, a small digital detox sort of thing, for everyone, doesn’t seem a half bad idea.

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Apple to join the foldable smartphone fold in late 2026

24 July 2025

This according to Bloomberg writer, Mark Gurman, that is. The proposed devices resemble a small iPad or tablet when opened out.

It’s often said Apple might not do things first, but they do them best (usually). Doubtless they will apply their know-how to the region of the device where the fold crease is, since this where a lot of foldables see problems.

And while we’re at it, can we use the term foldable in the same way as wearable?

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Meta wants to copy the photos on your phone and soup them up

1 July 2025

Sarah Perez, writing for Techcrunch:

As the pop-up message explains, by clicking “Allow,” you’ll let Facebook generate new ideas from your camera roll, like collages, recaps, AI restylings, or photo themes. To work, Facebook says it will upload media from your camera roll to its cloud (meaning its servers) on an “ongoing basis,” based on information like time, location, or themes.

In short, if you allow it, Meta will upload the contents of the photo library on your phone to their servers. In return, Facebook (FB) will create all sorts of nice stuff for you, using some of their AI tools.

I’m not a fan of this idea. People have all sorts of private images on their camera rolls, that they have no intention of sharing with anyone. Meta say these images won’t be made public, but I still don’t like the idea of FB keeping private photos on their servers, quite possibly in perpetuity.

Concerned I might accidentally — somehow possibly in pocket-dial fashion — agree to let FB take what’s in my photo library, I’ve since deleted the app from my phone. Unfortunately, a number of friends and family pretty much use FB for doing everything, including keeping in contact (many long since stopped email) with all their friends, so getting rid of FB completely isn’t an option at present.

From now on I’ll login to FB through the website, on my laptop, now and then to check for messages.

Nine minutes no more: iPhone users soon able to vary snooze alarm intervals

18 June 2025

It should be six-thirty in the morning, on the east coast of Australia, when this post is published, but all things being equal, I’ll be slumbering for another ninety-minutes.

And when the alarm on my iPhone starts chiming, I’ll likely press the snooze button a number of times. I’ll be productive though. Reading and replying to email, and looking at news headlines. Every nine minutes I’ll be reminded I need to start the day in the not too distant future.

But some people’s morning routines might be about to change, following the announcement at WWDC 2025 last week, that the upcoming iOS 26 update, will allow people to set snooze intervals from anywhere between one to fifteen minutes.

I’ve been thinking about the potential of being able to change the length of the snooze interval, but am not sure if it’s for me. Anything less would be too often, and anything longer might be a little too spread out. But I think being able to change the interval period, even if only to a maximum of fifteen minutes, will be welcomed by more than a few people.

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Can artificial intelligence and smartphones even co-exist?

17 March 2025

Manton Reece:

But what if Apple has discovered that it’s not actually possible? AI is entirely new, with new requirements that stress the limits of hardware. Apple is attempting to cram a clever intermingling of data and Siri features into 8 GB of RAM. As a comparison, the largest version of DeepSeek R1 can only be run on a brand new Mac Studio with the M3 Ultra and 512 GB of RAM.

512 GB of RAM? Well, Apple’s AI offering won’t have a hope of working on my old SE2 device, with its three GB of RAM then. Not that I think Apple Intelligence will be available on older handsets anyway.

For all the bad press Apple Intelligence has been copping in recent weeks though, some people are finding various of the currently available features useful, as Amanda Caswell writes at Tom’s Guide.

Drop the S, add a 16, the iPhone SE is now the 16e

28 February 2025

Aside from a two-year gap, from 2018 to 2020, I’ve had one or other of the iPhone SE handsets since 2016. A distinct feature of the SE models was their size. They were generally smaller than the other handsets in the iPhone range. I have big hands, prompting people to say to me, why the f**k did you choose an SE? I selected the SE precisely for its size. It fits perfectly into my back pocket. I also figured that the smaller size might deter me from using the device too often.

Well, that was back in 2016. The big hands, small handset combination meant — to my mind at least — the device would be that little bit more difficult to use. This especially while I was out and about, forcing me to wait until I was back at my laptop to do any heavy-duty sort of work tasks. That was partly successful at first, but given my phone also doubles as a watch, hands-off time was actually pretty low. Yes, I know: what ever was I thinking.

But now the SE is no more. The range has been superseded by the 16e. This name has been the subject of much conjecture, if that’s any surprise. Dropping the S, but keeping the E, means it is different from the old SE range, but only sort of. Adopting the 16 title is seen by some as bringing Apple’s SE-type handset offering into the annual handset update, meaning there will be a 17e next year. The SE-type handsets will no come along on a now-and-then basis.

That’s what some people are speculating anyway. What Apple ends up doing with the e range, remains to be seen. The 16e is a little bigger than the SE 2 — good, it’ll still slide nicely in a back pocket — and is the lowest priced handset in the 16 range. The camera remains similar to the SE’s, meaning I’ll still be unable to take high-definition video photos of the full Moon.

Not that’ll be switching over just yet, even though the 16e becomes available in Australia today, I think my old SE still a little bit of life left in it. From what I can tell, reviews of the 16e have been somewhat mixed, with some writers saying something like, “it’s good, but…”, while others are unsure why Apple even released the model. John Gruber meanwhile, describes the 16e as an iPhone for people who don’t want to think much about their phone.

That pretty summed up what I liked about the old SE range.

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