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Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

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Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#21

Post by jawns »

nlbrown wrote: post #6
blakesterz wrote: post #2

The answers, from the abstract seem to be "young people" are living at home more, drinking less and gaming more than they used to. "Among young women, the decline in the frequency of drinking alcohol explains about one quarter of the drop in the propensity to have casual sex. Among young men, declines in drinking frequency, an increase in computer gaming, and the growing percentage who coreside with their parents all…

I'm quite surprised to see that the leading theories in many of these studies revolve around competing forms of entertainment. I'm personally more concerned with how economic difficulty, mental health, and hormonal imbalances could be causing these sort of changes in society.

The study talks about how more young people are residing with their parents because of economic difficulty, but I'm not sure that's necessarily a major factor in the decline. Many people become sexually active before they move out of their parents' houses, and although it might be more challenging to find a private space, where there's a will, there's a way. Teenagers have been sneaking around to fool around for generations, and I don't think teenagers and young people of today are any less adept at finding a way to shack up if they're sufficiently determined.

So I think the focus is about what forces were not present in previous generations, and the Internet is certainly the most conspicuous factor. I'm not saying it's the decisive factor, but I'm not surprised it's a prime culprit.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#22

Post by ceilingcorner »

No mention of any cultural shifts or changing attitudes, as if young people having casual sex was just the natural state of civilization and not something that became celebrated and artificially encouraged via the media in the last half-century.

Tinder and other online dating options are pretty bleak and inherently extractive in nature, so I find it equally plausible that many young people are simply turned off from the whole thing.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#23

Post by wittyreference »

estsauver wrote: post #9
nlbrown wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite surprised to see that the leading theories in many of these studies revolve around competing forms of entertainment. I'm personally more concerned with how economic difficulty, mental health, and hormonal imbalances could be causing these sort of changes in society.

The study did examine economic difficulty. "The authors find no evidence that trends in young adults’ economic circumstances, internet use, or television watching explain the recent decline in casual sexual activity."

If they find no relationship between changing economic circumstances and the outcome, and but a positive relationship between likelihood of co-residence with parents and the outcome, the likelihood that they have made statistical blunders greatly outweighs the likelihood that changing economic circumstances do not play a role.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#24

Post by commandlinefan »

shams93 wrote: post #12

The key is more people forced to live with parents this doesn't just effect young people 78% of GenX are still forced to live at home. We have a society that is profoundly broken in so many ways.

> profoundly broken

Well, it's different than they way it was when I grew up, but I don't know if kids living with their parents necessarily indicates a "broken" society: humans more or less lived that way for millenia successfully until around the time of the industrial revolution.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#26

Post by throwaway8581 »

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 period.

The big increase is sexually inactive men and that is because women can more easily find highly attractive men on Tinder and other apps. The bottom of the male market has just fallen out completely. At least when you had to go to a bar as an unattractive guy, you could be the only one available or could woo women through other qualities. Now it’s 6 feet tall and fit with a good face or you get swiped left. And the high status men are more than happy to sleep with multiple women in a single week.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#27

Post by uses »

shams93 wrote: post #12

The key is more people forced to live with parents this doesn't just effect young people 78% of GenX are still forced to live at home. We have a society that is profoundly broken in so many ways.

Gen X is people born between '65 and '80. You're saying that 78% of people, presumably in the US, who are currently between 41 and 56 are living with their parents?

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#28

Post by bopbeepboop »

estsauver wrote: post #9
nlbrown wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite surprised to see that the leading theories in many of these studies revolve around competing forms of entertainment. I'm personally more concerned with how economic difficulty, mental health, and hormonal imbalances could be causing these sort of changes in society.

The study did examine economic difficulty. "The authors find no evidence that trends in young adults’ economic circumstances, internet use, or television watching explain the recent decline in casual sexual activity."

> the growing percentage who coreside with their parents all contribute significantly to the decline in casual sex

> find no evidence that trends in young adults’ economic circumstances

I... uh... can’t make sense of these two statements together, both of which seem quoted from the paper.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#29

Post by nerdponx »

estsauver wrote: post #9
nlbrown wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite surprised to see that the leading theories in many of these studies revolve around competing forms of entertainment. I'm personally more concerned with how economic difficulty, mental health, and hormonal imbalances could be causing these sort of changes in society.

The study did examine economic difficulty. "The authors find no evidence that trends in young adults’ economic circumstances, internet use, or television watching explain the recent decline in casual sexual activity."

You would have to dig into the paper to find out what exactly that means.

It might be that society is changing as a whole, and that individual variations of internet use don't contain any relevant information.

Re: Why are fewer young adults having casual sex?

#30

Post by MattGaiser »

scotty79 wrote: post #19
underseacables wrote: post #5

I think it is due to the misconception of an over abundance of choice. The apps trick us into believing that there is always someone better at the next swipe. So instead of having random hook ups, it could be that people are always waiting for the perfect, and thus having less casual sex.

Apps that enable random hookups discourage people from random hookups? Doesn't sound plausible.

This study says the number of people participating in hookups is down, not that hookups are down.
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