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Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

fortune.com

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Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#61

Post by insickness »

yodsanklai wrote: post #48
insickness wrote: post #8

I would attribute it more the glut of free online porn than netflix. Men consume porn far more than women because men are more visually stimulated than women. This has been verified by numerous scientific studies. In many ways, women can't compete with porn. Hundreds of years ago, the average man would be delighted to get sex from the average woman in his local community. Through porn, your average guy has seen more…

> I would attribute it more the glut of free online porn than netflix. I can see why porn has an impact in people having less sex but, porn is nothing new. When I was a teenager in the 80s, porn was readily available in VHS. Slightly less convenient that online porn, but equivalent for most purpose. > Men are far less willing to deal with all the pitfalls, annoyance and cost of dating There's much more than sex in a…

> Many people see dating as an enjoyable activity

Possible but I doubt most people enjoy dating that much. From my estimation, most people are annoyed while they are on the market and feel better when they are settled into a relationship. In fact, I suspect that the crappiness of dating is an evolutionary mechanism that pushes people into monogamy. In other words, the fact that dating is unpleasurable makes people more monogamous, improving offspring chances. Just my speculation.

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#62

Post by cbstory »

insickness wrote: post #57
cbstory wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This pretty speculative and kind of sexist. I mean you could kind of flip it around, only instead of men and porn it's women and dating apps. That the likes of tinder makes the most attractive men far more accessible to women, so they are no longer interested in the average man. And similarly tinder apps and the like have drastically reduced the costs of dating compared to the past. It's private, you only get hit on…

"This is sexist." I'm loathe to even respond to this type of non-argument but I'll bite. You're calling my argument sexist because it points to behavioral differences between genders? Or is it because it points to differences that may not be 100% social construct?

Neither.

I said "kind of", not "is". In principle this kind of argument can be done in an intellectually consistent way, with sources and statistics.

Instead you've followed a pattern I've seen time and time again.

An uncontentious fact (men are more visually aroused) followed by a unsupported train of thought that leads to a significantly speculative conclusion about the preferences/desires of a demographic that to some degree we find distasteful as a society.

If you evidence for your final claim I wouldn't have a problem, its just that this kind of discourse more often seems to pass bigotry off under the guise of just "speculation".

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#63

Post by dragonwriter »

yodsanklai wrote: post #48
insickness wrote: post #8

I would attribute it more the glut of free online porn than netflix. Men consume porn far more than women because men are more visually stimulated than women. This has been verified by numerous scientific studies. In many ways, women can't compete with porn. Hundreds of years ago, the average man would be delighted to get sex from the average woman in his local community. Through porn, your average guy has seen more…

> I would attribute it more the glut of free online porn than netflix. I can see why porn has an impact in people having less sex but, porn is nothing new. When I was a teenager in the 80s, porn was readily available in VHS. Slightly less convenient that online porn, but equivalent for most purpose. > Men are far less willing to deal with all the pitfalls, annoyance and cost of dating There's much more than sex in a…

> I can see why porn has an impact in people having less sex but, porn is nothing new. When I was a teenager in the 80s, porn was readily available in VHS. Slightly less convenient that online porn, but equivalent for most purpose.

I don't really think the huge variety, instantly available without interaction with another human or any payment, viewable on a variety of devices, including handhelds ones you can take anywhere is “equivalent for most purposes” to VHS porn.

> Many people see dating as an enjoyable activity, not an annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for sex.

I dunno, I've known lots of people who saw dating as a annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for sex, and lots of people who see it as annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for a meaningful committed relationship, and relatively few who see dating in and of itself as an enjoyable thing, especially very few who do so after their early 20s.

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#64

Post by r00fus »

mamon wrote: post #12
insickness wrote: post #8

I would attribute it more the glut of free online porn than netflix. Men consume porn far more than women because men are more visually stimulated than women. This has been verified by numerous scientific studies. In many ways, women can't compete with porn. Hundreds of years ago, the average man would be delighted to get sex from the average woman in his local community. Through porn, your average guy has seen more…

>> "videos of the the most physically attractive women imaginable" Is it just me, or are most of the porn stars really just little above average, when it comes to looks? Like 7/10? The women that I would call "most attractive women imaginable" are all regular movie/pop stars, not porn stars.

Looks only matter somewhat in porn. A moderately good looking actress that acts very well can also be considered attractive.

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#65

Post by dragonwriter »

daveFNbuck wrote: post #53
insickness wrote: post #8

I would attribute it more the glut of free online porn than netflix. Men consume porn far more than women because men are more visually stimulated than women. This has been verified by numerous scientific studies. In many ways, women can't compete with porn. Hundreds of years ago, the average man would be delighted to get sex from the average woman in his local community. Through porn, your average guy has seen more…

From the abstract of the paper this article is about: > Declines in sexual frequency were similar across gender, race, region, educational level, and work status and were largest among those in their 50s, those with school-age children, and those who did not watch pornography. Porn isn't a viable explanation if the effect was larger among people who don't watch porn.

> Porn isn't a viable explanation if the effect was larger among people who don't watch porn.

It is if porn is ubiquitous enough in society and is setting (or communicating) changing cultural expectations and signaling mechanisms related to sex, and those who abstain are therefore missing out on that context.

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#66

Post by daveFNbuck »

dragonwriter wrote: post #65
daveFNbuck wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the abstract of the paper this article is about: > Declines in sexual frequency were similar across gender, race, region, educational level, and work status and were largest among those in their 50s, those with school-age children, and those who did not watch pornography. Porn isn't a viable explanation if the effect was larger among people who don't watch porn.

> Porn isn't a viable explanation if the effect was larger among people who don't watch porn. It is if porn is ubiquitous enough in society and is setting (or communicating) changing cultural expectations and signaling mechanisms related to sex, and those who abstain are therefore missing out on that context.

That's a very different explanation than the one I was responding to, in which men are having less sex because they'd rather just watch porn.

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#67

Post by DoreenMichele »

I don't have a citation and I have no plans to dig one up. But everything I have ever read indicates that poor people have less sex than rich ones because they are just struggling to survive and can't manage to fit it into their lives. Historically, Americans had more sex on average than people in other countries because we had a large comfortably well off middle class.

I find it ironic that a magazine named Fortune would miss the obvious angle that this is likely related to the general financial distress in the world. It suggests Americans are too poor for luxury items like regular sex. They are working longer hours, exhausted and stressed out, so sex is just not happening.

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#68

Post by dragonwriter »

amriksohata wrote: post #17

Porn not Netflix, why would any male want sex with the effort of chasing a woman, romanticising, dealing with the hard-line feminists, when they can just knock one out for free?

Men have been able to knock one out for free since, at least, the evolution of opposable thumbs (and those probably aren't strictly necessary). Porn isn't material.

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#69

Post by amriksohata »

dragonwriter wrote: post #68
amriksohata wrote: post #17

Porn not Netflix, why would any male want sex with the effort of chasing a woman, romanticising, dealing with the hard-line feminists, when they can just knock one out for free?

Men have been able to knock one out for free since, at least, the evolution of opposable thumbs (and those probably aren't strictly necessary). Porn isn't material.

Not with the same stimulation and reason, that's why many Japanese men are steering clear of marriage and children, they want to do what their minds are programmed to do, not deal with tasks women traditionally do , and for them, they don't need a relationship to fulfill their other needs.

Re: Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

#70

Post by [deleted] »

cbstory wrote: post #62
insickness wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This is sexist." I'm loathe to even respond to this type of non-argument but I'll bite. You're calling my argument sexist because it points to behavioral differences between genders? Or is it because it points to differences that may not be 100% social construct?

Neither. I said "kind of", not "is". In principle this kind of argument can be done in an intellectually consistent way, with sources and statistics. Instead you've followed a pattern I've seen time and time again. An uncontentious fact (men are more visually aroused) followed by a unsupported train of thought that leads to a significantly speculative conclusion about the preferences/desires of a demographic that to…

[deleted]
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