A thread that looks at good trends.
Good news tends not to make the headlines, by and large. Indeed, it's worth noting that one of the things that's so newsworthy about the Russo Ukrainian War is that it's a big conventional war. Those tend just not to happen anymore.
This isn't going to be cheerful, as it's in the contest of the purpose of this site, which is really focused on the first couple of decades of the 20th Century. We're looking at good, long term, trends here that have hit the news somehow, recently.
May 1, 2023
Adult smoking hit an all-time low. About 1 in 9 American adults are smokers.
The degree to which average Americans smoked in the 20th Century, after World War One, is stunning. Women didn't start to really take it up until the 1920s, but by the 30s, everyone was smoking in earnest.
Teenage (high school) sexual activity is way down, with 30% reporting having had sex, down from over 50% a few decades back.
Teen pregnancy is also way down. It's often not appreciated the degree to which this was common in the past.
Of course, this can be explained in more than one way, including the spike in young marriages in the 50s and 60s, but there are other explanations as well.
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