575
Our totally normal Nintendo DS ad is ready to print, boss! (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
86 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] -4 points 6 months ago (14 children)

Regarding the fact that these ads promote playing games instead of having sex … umm, that’s basically what happened. Sounds crazy but, ya, young people are having less sex today, and the birth rate has dropped precipitously. You can list a dozen other factors that would impact this as well (economy, education, etc) but access to video games does seem to correlate. Sometimes correlation IS causation.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 14 child comments
    •
  • [–] 13 points 6 months ago (11 children)

    I don't think this is true. You can disprove this by comparing the fertility rates to the popularity of gaming in different countries, for example in Sweden birth rates rose considerably between 2000 and 2010 despite gaming being an extremely popular pastime in Sweden.

    There are lots of factors involved of course but the largest ones are things like widespread access to birth control, being able to afford to raise a child and feeling like you live in a stable, safe environment to raise a child.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 11 child comments
    •
  • [–] -5 points 6 months ago* (10 children)

    Its immigrants getting lots of kids. Its common with 4-5 kids. I think whats happening is that native swedes are having less children but because of immigration, birth rates go up a lot.

    Perhaps its possible to show this using statistics but probably not since they dont separate immigrants in those stats.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago* (9 children)

    Okay? Even if that is true, so what? Do immigrants not play video games? lmao

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
    •
  • [–] -3 points 6 months ago (8 children)

    Just explaining the stats for sweden. Without those, birth rates would be going down a lot.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago* (7 children)

    I decided to investigate your claim because it smelled fishy - and yeah, you're wrong.

    Foreign born women do have slightly higher birth rates than native-born women, but it's nowhere close to 4-5 kids: between 2000 and 2010, native-born women had, on average, around 1.7 children each, compared to foreign-born women having on average, around 2.1 children each. However, because foreign-born women make up comparatively few of the Swedish population, this effect only increases the average birth rate by around 0.1 child:

    Furthermore, to hammer my own point home, income quartile has a much larger effect on birth rates, with the difference between income quartile 1 (0.9 births avg) and income quartile 4 (2.4 births average) having a much stronger effect:

    So, yeah, it's not video games, and it's not really a migration issue. As I said in my original reply, it's a lot more to do with financial security and stability.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [+] -7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (6 children)

    Good info but sadly I dont trust the official numbers here. As i am sure you know, misleading with statistics is very easy. "Foreign-born" is what they use here, and they dont include people who came earlier, and are now considered Swedish citizens.

    But still, good to get the official view! I had no doubt it would not show anything negative.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

    they dont include people who came earlier, and are now considered Swedish citizens.

    That isn't true. It's just mothers who were born in countries other than Sweden. Even if they are now Swedish citizens, they are still considered foreign-born.

    Good info but sadly I dont trust the official numbers here.

    Yes, I was expecting you to say that. What's your source, then?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [+] -6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

    I just ask chat gpt to go through the statistics since there are a million documents about this. They do have more children but it has decreased in the last few years. Definently not 4-5 children. And its good for the state, since Sweden now has the lowest child births in decades.

    According to Statistics Sweden, foreign-born women in Sweden have, on average, slightly more children than women born in Sweden, but the difference has clearly decreased.

    Latest clear comparison from Statistics Sweden:

    GroupTotal fertility rate, 2023Women born in Sweden1.4 children per womanWomen born abroad1.6 children per woman

    Statistics Sweden says that foreign-born women follow the same downward trend as Swedish-born women, but “at a higher level.” In 1990, foreign-born women had 2.4 children per woman, while in 2023 the figure was 1.6. Swedish-born women had 1.4 in 2023.

    Important nuances:

    “Immigrants” are not one single group. Statistics Sweden says that women born in the EU or Nordic countries generally have lower fertility than women born in Sweden, while women born in Africa have the highest fertility. Women born in Asia are higher than Swedish-born women but lower than women born in Africa.

    The measure is not perfectly comparable. Statistics Sweden notes that the total fertility rate for foreign-born women is not fully comparable with Swedish-born women, because not all foreign-born women have lived in Sweden throughout their entire fertile period.

    Part of the difference is due to timing of immigration. Statistics Sweden says that childbearing is often high in the first years after immigration, which can raise the figure for foreign-born women.

    Overall fertility in Sweden is low. For Sweden as a whole, the total fertility rate in 2025 was 1.42 children per woman, roughly the same low level as in 2024.

    So the answer is: yes, on average slightly more, but not dramatically more, and the difference varies a lot depending on region of birth and time spent in Sweden.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 9 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    It really beggars belief that you trust ChatGPT's regurgitation of my own source more than the direct source itself, considering how well documented the unreliability and bias of ChatGPT and other LLMs are, but putting that aside, are you strong enough to realize and admit you were wrong?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago

    Misleading with statistics can certainly be done in some contexts, but it's harder to do that than it is to be wrong with just 'I have a gut feel bro'. The breakdown by income quartile here is, like, directly the narrative that the stats are intended to support and clearly a larger impact that immigration because... Well.. Quartiles are quite big...

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    Well, a couple of points about my post that seems to have generated far more discussion than I would have guessed.

    1. I was being a little tongue in cheek, as anyone with any scientific understanding at all knows that “correlation is not causation”. And with a topic such as this, it would be almost impossible to isolate the direct causes for a) young people having sex and b) for dropping fertility rates.

    2. Sweden is only one country. Certainly not one that I was focused on (at all). Generally speaking, fertility rates are dropping amongst western (and Japan) countries. Of course there could be outliers. I don’t think that an increase of .1% is statistically significant considering the rates in some countries are about 1/2 what they were 50 years ago.

    3. the main point of my comment was that young people are having less sex today. That was an actual study. I’ll link it if in a find it again. In Japan, it’s gotten so acute that 50% of people in their 20’s are self reporting as virgins and 20% in their 30’s. That’s insane to me as a couple decades ago, Japanese people were considered by the west to be promiscuous. However, they were also considered the gaming epicentre at that time. So perhaps the effects take a decade or so to be noticed? 😉

    Or perhaps there’s no correlation at all.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent