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The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

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Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#11

Post by d4mi3n »

revx wrote: post #5

The article mostly blames pornography and digital addiction, but I think those are symptoms of a larger problem, which is lack of belonging and community. If life sucks, you have few friends you can afford the time or money to see, and you work to make other people rich until you are exhausted, when do you have time and energy to maintain a relationship? If you feel like the world is on fire, it's hard to get in the…

You make some good points about attitude around sex in parts of the US today, and the erosion of community is a topic I was was more often discussed.

Sex ed is also something I was more universally supported. Regardless of your views on when someone should have sex, I doubt it serves anyone’s goals to have young adults getting hurt, sick, or traumatized by a natural part of growing up.

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#12

Post by ancillary »

revx wrote: post #5

The article mostly blames pornography and digital addiction, but I think those are symptoms of a larger problem, which is lack of belonging and community. If life sucks, you have few friends you can afford the time or money to see, and you work to make other people rich until you are exhausted, when do you have time and energy to maintain a relationship? If you feel like the world is on fire, it's hard to get in the…

> Americans: why isn't anyone having sex anymore?? Also Americans: Abstinence only! You'll get pregnant! No abortions! STDs will kill you! Men deserve sex! We're not going to teach you how your body works!

None of that is new in America. If anything, I'd expect that these forces were stronger 20-30 years ago, when sexual activity rates were higher.

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#13

Post by amelius »

d4mi3n wrote: post #9

Is this really all that surprising? We have a ton of things ongoing now that we either know or suspect are big contributors to this: - the whole male loneliness epidemic - a longstanding loss of community and social organizations around the country - a pretty terrible job market for many Americans - plenty of things to be stressed or worried about. Geopolitical instability. Erosion of individual rights. The complete…

Feminism maybe? (yes controversial, more science needed)

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#14

Post by [deleted] »

lithocarpus wrote: post #4

Humans generally don't interact in person as much with other humans anymore and technology is I think one of the big drivers of this change. From the article: "When it comes to sexlessness (“no sex in the last year”) among young adults, the biggest change comes post-2010." "Between 2010 and 2019, the average time young adults spent with friends in a given week fell by nearly 50%, from 12.8 hours to just 6.5 hours." N…

[deleted]

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#15

Post by d4mi3n »

asdev wrote: post #8

This is all because of technology. Pre internet you could not just isolate yourself and medicate with content since there was only the television. In person communities formed organically as an effect. Those communities have now been eroded by technology. And no, technology cannot help make in person community, it's something organic that needs to happen with people.

Plenty of people isolated and medicated with TV alone. Couch potatoes were a thing.

Plenty of people also find community through technology, so I personally don’t believe technology is the only contributing factor here.

I do agree with in you general about many Americans not having enough social or communal interaction, though. I suspect this is more a symptom of a lot of other social issues than a purely technological problem though.

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#16

Post by bryanrasmussen »

Aside from the other examples given I suppose (listed in no particular order, numbers not related to importance of reason)

1. Social movements promoting not having sex. Obviously not that big a thing but it does cut down the available sex partners.

2. reiterating the examples people give of animosity between male and female, straight sex still the bulk of sex and does seem to be a lot more reasons for avoiding each other nowadays.

3. neurodivergence becoming more acceptable, many neurodivergent people have lesser sex drives, in the past you might have just decided to go ahead and have sex because oh well it's what one does isn't it.

4. sex is going down in comparison to previous decades which might have been especially high sex decades. Perhaps the sexual revolution was revolutionary but now it is somewhat old hat and not as interesting.

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#17

Post by f-securus »

ancillary wrote: post #12
revx wrote: post #5

The article mostly blames pornography and digital addiction, but I think those are symptoms of a larger problem, which is lack of belonging and community. If life sucks, you have few friends you can afford the time or money to see, and you work to make other people rich until you are exhausted, when do you have time and energy to maintain a relationship? If you feel like the world is on fire, it's hard to get in the…

> Americans: why isn't anyone having sex anymore?? Also Americans: Abstinence only! You'll get pregnant! No abortions! STDs will kill you! Men deserve sex! We're not going to teach you how your body works! None of that is new in America. If anything, I'd expect that these forces were stronger 20-30 years ago, when sexual activity rates were higher.

Roe V Wade reversal and the extent they rolled back women’s rights has certainly changed the atmosphere.

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#18

Post by mewpmewp2 »

d4mi3n wrote: post #9

Is this really all that surprising? We have a ton of things ongoing now that we either know or suspect are big contributors to this: - the whole male loneliness epidemic - a longstanding loss of community and social organizations around the country - a pretty terrible job market for many Americans - plenty of things to be stressed or worried about. Geopolitical instability. Erosion of individual rights. The complete…

On the other hand historically there's been circumstances far worse than we are having now in terms of war, famine, diseases, living standards and it didn't stop people from reproducing at all. I really doubt it's that. I think it's something else.

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#19

Post by fruitworks »

revx wrote: post #5

The article mostly blames pornography and digital addiction, but I think those are symptoms of a larger problem, which is lack of belonging and community. If life sucks, you have few friends you can afford the time or money to see, and you work to make other people rich until you are exhausted, when do you have time and energy to maintain a relationship? If you feel like the world is on fire, it's hard to get in the…

Is sex ed positively correlated with greater fertility and frequency of sex? I expect the opposite is true.

Re: The share of Americans having regular sex keeps dropping

#20

Post by smt88 »

amelius wrote: post #13
d4mi3n wrote: post #9

Is this really all that surprising? We have a ton of things ongoing now that we either know or suspect are big contributors to this: - the whole male loneliness epidemic - a longstanding loss of community and social organizations around the country - a pretty terrible job market for many Americans - plenty of things to be stressed or worried about. Geopolitical instability. Erosion of individual rights. The complete…

Feminism maybe? (yes controversial, more science needed)

Yes, in the sense that educated and working women have started to prefer a partner at the same or higher levels of education and income.

But most people don't have college degrees, so this doesn't explain everything.

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