It’s early morning. After I have willed myself out of bed and got my kids ready for the day, I sit down to eat my breakfast (either soggy cereal or cold porridge, the staple of parents of young children everywhere) and read the news. The algorithm already knows what I am interested in, so most of the headlines I come across are at least vaguely intriguing. After a quick scroll, I notice it. Another one. I click and skim through the article, but there really isn’t anything new there. The title reads, ‘2023 saw the lowest recorded birth rate ever in insert random country’. I mentally archive the article with a dozen other similar ones I have come upon in the last several months, each about a different country around the world. They are all experiencing the same trend.
