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Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

latimes.com

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Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#11

Post by geomark »

I'm not a millenial so maybe the millenials on HN can explain it. I keep reading that millenials don't like human interaction. Things like prefering to wait in line at a kiosk to order food when there is an order taking human available with no waiting. Preference for online ordering a pizza so there is no need to speak to a human order taker on the phone. Stare at social media on a mobile device rather than socialize with physical humans. It's no wonder there's less sex going on.

I used to think it was Facebook and the like that turned an entire generation into social retards. But the effect seems to predate social media.

Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#12

Post by helthanatos »

niftich wrote: post #2

This opinion piece started off promisingly, but by the end, I lost track of what point the author was trying to make. Truly, did they merely offer retorts to the people quoted in the referenced WaPo article? I was expecting an analysis like the first couple paragraphs foreshadowed, not just a 'yeah, well, these people are quirky, but they may have a point here or there'. Does anyone feel the same?

I lost track when the ads popped up... Not sure if the opinion is right though. To me, it seems that most people have sex by sometime in high school

Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#14

Post by mjevans »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #6
sethammons wrote: post #3

TIL that I am a millennial at 35 yo. I thought I was Gen X.

We were. Then people realized "Gen X" was insanely broad, and they split us off into "Gen Y", which never stuck because that was one of the stupidest names ever conceived. Then it's like none of that ever happened and we're part of the generation who has never known life without the Internet and still don't know what Hammer Pants are. Don't worry, it's not supposed to make sense. It'll all get redefined again before…

I know what hammer pants are, barely, as that song was super popular within my memory. I can't recall what they look like, but I know EXACTLY what song they are paired with.

I don't really feel like I'm part of any demographic. Truly a lost generation.

Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#15

Post by userbinator »

narrator wrote: post #10

Methinks that this may be because millenials are the first generation with ready universal access to unlimited Internet porn, which only really started in the mid 2000s with the emergence of the tube sites and everyone getting a smartphone. Over at reddit.com/r/nofap (debatably NSFW) there is actually a non-religious backlash to the whole thing, essentially saying that the key to improving every aspect of one's life…

It was not long ago that a lot of the opposition to Internet porn were claiming it would cause everyone to start having a lot more sex and all the problems coming from that. Apparently not.

Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#16

Post by beambot »

sethammons wrote: post #3

TIL that I am a millennial at 35 yo. I thought I was Gen X.

For any living group of people, these labels and boundaries are relatively arbitrary. It will likely evolve over the next few decades (and beyond) as the cultural shifts that occurred become more apparent / distinct.

Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#17

Post by angersock »

narrator wrote: post #10

Methinks that this may be because millenials are the first generation with ready universal access to unlimited Internet porn, which only really started in the mid 2000s with the emergence of the tube sites and everyone getting a smartphone. Over at reddit.com/r/nofap (debatably NSFW) there is actually a non-religious backlash to the whole thing, essentially saying that the key to improving every aspect of one's life…

Well, it's sort of an interesting thing, right?

I'd suggest that perhaps the confluence causing this is:

1. The people in society historically tasked with making the first moves in courtship having a ready and handy (ha) alternative to expending great effort for sexual gratification.

2. The people in society historically tasked with receiving courtship proposals being exposed to a vast marketplace via online dating and mass media and devaluing local suitors.

3. The people in society historically tasked with receiving courtship proposals being bombarded constantly with messages of fear and victimization, to the point where any suitor is often seen first as a threat.

At least for people who are primarily socialized online and on social media, say Millennial college students today and five years ago, there is a vast disconnect between how dating and fucking is portrayed and propagandized, and how it is actually practiced.

Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#18

Post by mjevans »

I think this author is missing (or maybe the OTHER article covered it) some very valid points.

I didn't see the first point on this list mentioned once, and I got lost about mid-way through he article in a rage of searching for it...

* AIDS, it started coming out in the 80s, but the time period that it's been the most scary is exactly during the years that many in the covered population segment(s) formed their opinion of the risks of sexual relations.

* Consent is, very dicey.

* Feminism has empowered women, to a degree, but it has not yet achieved true gender equality, nor has it liberated men from traditional gender roles. In many contexts men are still held to the prior rules and even assumed to be at fault/guilty (not that it can't be the case, just that we aren't running a society based on scientifically provable /facts/).

* Economics. The price of housing, a stable job you can expect to exist for a long time, an actual career path in a single location with a single company, a reasonable commute. It's incredibly difficult to find that for one, let alone a pair, and then adding 'good schools' on top?

Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#19

Post by lj3 »

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the political climate yet. Millennials aren't having sex for a very simple reason: the risk is too high. We live in an age where consent can be retroactively withdrawn. If you choose to have a one night stand and you choose your partner poorly, you run a serious risk of becoming a registered sex offender. That's a life sentence. You'll never have a normal job or a normal life after that.

Re: Millennials are having less sex than any generation in 60 years

#20

Post by trowawee »

Born in '89. I suspect the reason millennials are less sexually active is less related to a disinterest in sex (or whatever the ridiculous claim about consent fears mentioned elsewhere in these comments) and more because of the same major issue that plagues most of my generation: money, or the lack thereof. This is also the primary reason that we're buying less cars, and going on fewer vacations, or whatever indicator of brokeassedness you prefer. We're broke as shit and in a ton of debt: http://slate.me/1udY1Ux. Spoiler alert: it's really hard to get laid when you're living with your parents and a night at Applebee's is a splurge. I'm lucky; I've got relatively little student debt and I write code for a living. I'm doing ok. But I've got lots of friends on or near the wrong side of 30 who are living with multiple roommates in crappy neighborhoods, and lots more who are back home with mom and dad. I've got friends with worthless law degrees from T3 law schools and $200k in debt who work retail. Almost everyone I know, except for some of the trust fund kids, has a frightening amount of student debt. Most have little hope for paying it off. Almost everyone I know came out of college into a labor market with little or no interest in them. Some of the STEM kids, the programmers and doctors and engineers, are going to be ok. Most of the rest are screwed. Somehow I suspect that's got a little more to do with sexual inactivity than any of the stupid ideas proffered in this link or the original study.
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