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Americans are having less sex and researchers are blaming Netflix

fortune.com

21–30 of 76 posts

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

#21
post #12

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.

You've forgotten that attractiveness is a relation property not an absolute - those women will have been selected for their attractiveness to a particular market.

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

#22
post #12

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.

How about the women that you see IRL? Is the average woman, worse or better than the average porn star?

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

#23
post #7

I don't know what's more ridiculous in this article, the "hunch", the fact that Netflix is never mentioned by name (while Hulu is) or the apex of stupid tech junk called "the smart condom" which auto-plays at the side...

Netflix to movies on demand is like iPad to tablets and Xerox to photocopy machines. Technically it is not correct, but people call stuff by the first success to market.

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

#24

I worry that #metoo also scares men of from approaching women?

If those men think groping is part of "approaching women", then I sure hope #metoo scares them off.

edit: Seems like #metoo might also apply to purely verbal "offenses". I'm not quite in the loop on this, so I'll tread carefully here and not express an opinion.

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

#25

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 can see this getting way worse quickly with the rise of the multiple VR porn sites then. A quick read of related Reddits indicates most VR users aren’t really going back to 2D after making the leap.

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

#26

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…

While that might sound logical at the first glance, the abstract stated that "The decline was not linked to longer working hours or increased pornography use."

https://sci-hub.tw/10.1007/s10508-017-0953-1

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

#27

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?

Because there is more intimacy in almost every way (physical, emotional, etc.) with another human being than oneself. Almost anyone who has actually had sex is likely to describe it as being superior to masturbation, in general, whatever the stimuli for the latter.

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

#28
If you are craving a more penetrating discourse on how technology is affecting the modern mating game. I'd give a listen to this enlightening interview noted couples therapist Esther Perel gave on a recent episode of Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She makes the point that due to social media, etc. there is now what amounts to a paper trail for our assignations. And a mere "like" is enough to constitute a form of cheating ;)

As Marriage Standards Change, A Therapist Recommends 'Rethinking Infidelity'

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/13/570131890/as-marriage-standar...

While it may be impossible to empirically quantify if humans are enjoying less intimacy than a generation ago. I do see a danger that the erotic sphere is becoming abstracted away from its powerful roots by modern alienation. To get that mojo back, is to return to more ritualistic practices. Perhaps inspired by ancient rites of fertility common to all cultures. Akin to the way farm-to-table and slow food movements can cure one of the malaise that arises from prolonged daily exposure to Seamless dinners without any connection to Nature.

But then again, my cure for almost any modern ailment tends to be to look to the ancients!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29044.The_Secret_History

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

#29

If we're going with hunches (as in the article) free streaming porn seems more likely than streaming conventional entertainment like Netflix. I mean, both have taken off over the relevant period, but porn is obviously a bit more closely tied to sex.

According to the abstract, the decline was not related to porn consumption, but since I don't have access to the article I don't know the details of how they controlled for it.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-017-0953-1

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

#30
post #19

I think that the researchers are on to something broader. The research shows that smart device use lessens sex. Japan for example has early high technology usage and high suicide rates but low birth rates. Does devices with entertainment substitute getting together with your partner and friends?

Repeat after me - correlation does not imply causation
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