The world won't end with a bang but with a shrug of indifference

The always-excellent John Burn-Murdoch at the *Financial Times* has published a revealing piece with data showing that young people are becoming less conscientious, less outgoing, and less trustworthy—while also becoming more neurotic and more argumentative.

In the article, Burn-Murdoch tentatively points to smartphones, digital technologies, and the abundance of easy distractions as a likely culprits.

I’m a little hesitant to blame technology for everything, but these trends are morosely fascinating nonetheless.
Sharing it here as a topic to explore in the future.

Digging deeper into the data, which comes from the Understanding America Study, we can see that people in their twenties and thirties in particular report feeling increasingly easily distracted and careless, less tenacious and less likely to make and deliver on commitments.

While a full explanation of these shifts requires thorough investigation, and there will be many factors at work, smartphones and streaming services seem likely culprits. The advent of ubiquitous and hyper-engaging digital media has led to an explosion in distraction, as well as making it easier than ever to either not make plans in the first place or to abandon them. The sheer convenience of the online world makes real-life commitments feel messy and effortful. And the rise of time spent online and the attendant decline in face-to-face interactions enable behaviours such as “ghosting”.

https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1954527106005631359?t=P0CIupBUj-B\_GuDpTR6\_gQ&s=19

https://open.substack.com/pub/gurwinder/p/how-social-media-shortens-your-life?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=android&r=1eft5

https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1783140190359298157?t=TYCpNBEmqdNn6JBre97Sag&s=19

https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1930320952211968128?t=jJhlj-0Ph_km8JMTYL-PVw&s=19

https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1902330878530875477?t=-SMt6XB2jszPkldACGtG1Q&s=19

https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1790390982791270502?t=5A4GxBNroj6RBUMzXL9Yww&s=19

https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1202235852501508098?t=AYPhm5VPFxUSY9Y-QlucFg&s=19

https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1631333140177330176?t=qeNJkf1F12TstorAj90D_Q&s=19

https://x.com/nxthompson/status/1952476459555340311?t=mbr5HdK-k3ztIKkdnxW0wQ&s=19

John’s twitter 🧵:

https://x.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1953811277463122162?t=7CukVmOhnY3r1y7_Ezn8Bg&s=19

Interesting comments from the ever awesome Kyla Scanlon:

https://x.com/kylascan/status/1954304468356645025?t=cqtkKrt-BriXTYlseIPo5g&s=19

Also reminds me of something I heard on Derek Thompson’s Plain English podcast:

But maybe there is sort of an either-or dynamic with risk assets where either money is flowing into housing or stocks, but not both, because you can only sort of be caught up in one mania at a time.both because you can only sort of be caught up in one media at a time.Yeah.Yeah.I mean, there’s a sociological layer to this as well, which is that, you know, not to be a classic middle-aged guy here, but, you know, you invest your money in housing, you’re investing in a community, you’re investing in a foundation for building a family.You put that same amount of money into crypto and meme coins, you’re doing something very different.

You’re putting not only your attention into very different fields, you’re also delaying the year at which you begin to maybe start a family.And there’s so much evidence showing that, you know, coupling rates have been delayed and, you know, age of first fertility has been delayed and overall fertility is going down.You know, it’s funny.I’ve been thinking about this take maybe for the Substack that’s like every social phenomenon is a housing phenomenon and a smartphone phenomenon.Like I think I want to call it like the home screen hypothesis.It’s like every single thing you want, are you interested in why Americans are having less sex? Are you interested in why Americans are socializing less?Why they’re partying less? Why they’re dating less? Why there’s higher anxiety?

You can tell a housing and or smartphone story about all of this.

https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/plain-english-with-derek-thompson/2025/07/30/the-new-geography-of-housing-in-america