Why are fewer young adults having casual sex? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#171

Post by zepto » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:35 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #123

throwaway8581 wrote: post #26

Many comments are ignoring the most important aspect. The decline is almost all among men not women: > Using a slightly different age range and time frame, Ueda et al. (2020) found that the percentage of sexually inactive men ages 18 to 24 increased from 18.9 percent in 2000–2002 to 30.9 percent in 2016–2018, and the percentage of sexually inactive young women increased from 15.1 percent to 19.1 percent over the same…

It's probably more than that. You don't have to be some 6ft tall hunk to land a woman. It definitely helps but it isn't required. What is required is that you try and don't get discouraged. It's a lot easier to stay home, play video games, and watch porn than it is to date. Plus, successful dating reduces time for video games.

> You don't have to be some 6ft tall hunk to land a woman. It definitely helps but it isn't required.

This is true, but what you do need is access to women so that you can learn what they want.

If those women have a low incentive to spend time with less physically (or financially) attractive men, it’s going to be hard for the less attractive ones to develop the necessary capacities.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#172

Post by watwut » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #66

ars wrote: post #15

Historically causal sex was rare, and it could be that the recent increase in this was an aberration, and people are just going back to the way it used to be done. This line: "On the other hand, sexual inactivity may hinder young adults’ psychosocial development and diminish their physical and emotional gratification (Julian 2018)." is just bizzare. People have done without casual sex for most of human history, I thi…

Is there hard evidence that casual sex has been rare for all of human history? I know some cultures discourage it and some religions forbid it, but I also know that human beings love to have sex regardless of what’s good or reasonable or sensible. It’s hard to imagine us not doing it, if only hiding it better when society demands it.

A lot of casual sex before pill means a lot of babies out of wedlock. So, you can count prevalence of out out of wedlock babies to have estimate on hidden casual sex.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#173

Post by seneca » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

kar5pt wrote: post #167

I dont understand how you can consider the causes of women and men having less sex to be separate. Most people are heterosexual, if something causes women to have less sex, that will also cause men to have less sex since they'll be less likely to find women to have sex with (and vice versa).

You're assuming a 1 to 1 relationship, which isn't the case. A minority of men have sex with many women, and many men have sex with no women.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#174

Post by Armisael16 » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

Fricken wrote: post #161

Armisael16 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that have to do with GenX?

It's sourced data, to clear up confusion. The parent likely meant to say Gen Z.

They said:

>this doesn't just effect young people

So I had assumed they meant what they said. The oldest members of genZ are mid-20s, which I would not consider to be not-young people.

Maybe I'm just getting old.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#175

Post by WrtCdEvrydy » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

scarmig wrote: post #163

perardi wrote: post #72

Is there any reputable study or sources for the amount of casual sex among young homosexual men? Because, anecdotally: plenty of casual sex.

As a bisexual guy, I will throw in a second confirming anecdote. Theories of sex decreasing because of men being left out of the economy, the secular decrease in testosterone, men being addicted to video games and porn, etc. have to grapple with the likelihood that casual sex hasn't decreased among men-who-have-sex-with-men but rather increased. If that were confirmed, then why are men-who-have-sex-with-women in part…

The answer could be that women are just choosing better men in the apps and just becoming the 13th girl in his roster.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#176

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

wittyreference wrote: post #156

Armisael16 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a statistical blunder? If economic circumstances provide no additional explanatory power beyond coresidence...

It is, because another way of phrasing that is "coresidence provides no additional explanatory power beyond economic circumstances." When that's what your data looks like, proper study design either involves testing that hypothesis, or staying the fuck away from making conclusions that take one of those as significant and one as non-significant.

[deleted]

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#177

Post by bradlys » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:44 PM UTC

scarmig wrote: post #163

perardi wrote: post #72

Is there any reputable study or sources for the amount of casual sex among young homosexual men? Because, anecdotally: plenty of casual sex.

As a bisexual guy, I will throw in a second confirming anecdote. Theories of sex decreasing because of men being left out of the economy, the secular decrease in testosterone, men being addicted to video games and porn, etc. have to grapple with the likelihood that casual sex hasn't decreased among men-who-have-sex-with-men but rather increased. If that were confirmed, then why are men-who-have-sex-with-women in part…

Consider the standards of a gay man and consider the standards of a straight woman. You might find they differ. Also, I tend to find that gay men are more attractive than straight men.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#178

Post by kar5pt » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:45 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #123

throwaway8581 wrote: post #26

Many comments are ignoring the most important aspect. The decline is almost all among men not women: > Using a slightly different age range and time frame, Ueda et al. (2020) found that the percentage of sexually inactive men ages 18 to 24 increased from 18.9 percent in 2000–2002 to 30.9 percent in 2016–2018, and the percentage of sexually inactive young women increased from 15.1 percent to 19.1 percent over the same…

It's probably more than that. You don't have to be some 6ft tall hunk to land a woman. It definitely helps but it isn't required. What is required is that you try and don't get discouraged. It's a lot easier to stay home, play video games, and watch porn than it is to date. Plus, successful dating reduces time for video games.

You've obviously never been an unattractive man on Tinder. It's not just "hard", it's mentally excruciating. You can easily swipe through thousands of women and not find one that's willing to even have a conversation with you. I'm honestly surprised that dating app related suicides aren't more common.

I'm tired of this, "just keep trying and you'll land a woman" narrative. It's the same logic that capitalists use to tell poor people, "just keep working hard and you'll succeed". It expects people to keep facing failure after failure and never let's us admit that for some men dating is just not worth the pain involved. And then when they see the writing on the wall and give up, that's just used as more evidence that "men don't try hard enough" and aren't willing to face failure.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#179

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:49 PM UTC

durnygbur wrote: post #155

twobitshifter wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an easier explanation- that the young women are having sex with men older than 24. With people getting married later in life the pool of unmarried men from 24-30 is much larger than in the past. My understanding is that younger women tend to prefer a slightly older guy and men tend to prefer a slightly younger woman. In the 18-24 age group, the 18-24 year old men are competing against themselves and older me…

To cheer you up it doesn't get any better as you age.

Honestly it seems to only get worse, but I feel that is a function of dating itself getting worse at a much faster rate than any advantage age might convey. How anyone can tolerate the experience of dating in the appified world I'll never know.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#180

Post by viklove » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

nickthemagicman wrote: post #20

My theory, that no one wants to talk about, is that dating apps have sped up hypergamy. (Note: talking statistically on a population level..this is not every person) Before an average guy used to be able to get a date without a problem, but now the bar is set much higher for a male, due to quick and easy access for women to dates via technology. (This in reverse applies to men less so because men are polygamous not h…

Lots of people have talked about these issues, but society's response has been to drive those people away and label them "misogynists" for observing what has happened in the sexual marketplace. A lot of the ideas you talk about are openly discussed in Red Pill/Incel communities, and you know how much everyone hates those groups.

Red Pill is the group of men who understand hypergamy and actively try to elevate themselves to be the "highest value" males so they can benefit from it.

Incels are the group of men who have tried to honestly attract members of the other sex, but continuous failure has lead them to a state of despair to the point where they withdraw completely and instead focus on things that actually make them happy like video games.

But even by mentioning those two groups, this comment is likely to get downvoted and I'm likely to be labeled as a misogynist for considering that they might be right about some things.