Could this be the end of sex?
By all accounts sex should be at an all-time high, but it’s not — even though society is more accepting and sex positive than at any time in history. Just look at the sex scenes in popular TV shows, or the cinematic BDSM experience of Fifty Shades of Grey, or the expanding landscape of sexual kinks and the lifting of taboos.
Sex can be found everywhere in the media, and yet there’s less of it in people’s lives. Why?
In a recent article published by The Atlantic, entitled, “Why are Young People Having So Little Sex?” the number of reasons as to why this is happening is astonishing.
The reasons, to name a few, include: anxiety, depression, dating apps, careerism, and porn.
First, apps like Tinder are staples in the millennial dating world. Unfortunately, the odds of forming a successful relationship through apps like this are slim.
In a 2016 report by Jean M. Twenge of San Diego State University, Tinder said that the average user logs in 11 times a day, totaling about an hour and a half per person. Today, Tinder reports that it logs 1.6 billion swipes a day, yielding 26 million matches. According to one Tinder user in an interview with The Atlantic, by his estimation, for every 10 matches he has it’s likely that he’ll only receive one message. This can easily amount to a fruitless waste of time.
What about the old-fashioned approach of asking someone out in person? With the rising rates of anxiety, the very idea of asking somebody out has become a terrifying thought. For some, the fear of rejection is a fate worse than death. That inhibition then starts to grind against a person’s desire.
The rise of #MeToo has also factored in. According to a 2017 Economist/YouGov poll, 17 per cent of people between 18 and 29 years of age believe that asking a coworker out for a drink constitutes sexual harassment. Even bravely chatting with a stranger can be seen as a step too far, and many people have withdrawn their dating desires altogether.
Low self-esteem concerning one’s own physical desirability also plays a part. Often this is due to the media’s pressure as to what people should look like. If a person feels like their body is unattractive to other people, how could they possibly put themselves out there? There’s also the uniquely millennial fear of being naked in front of other people that makes nudity even within couples difficult.
Then there’s porn. With the ever-abundant world of online pornography, it’s quite easy for people to get off. People don’t go out seeking real life relationships because porn fulfills their basic sexual needs.
For some women porn has led to a lack of regular sex due to their male partners wanting to try the kinkier sexual acts prevalent in porn. As a result, these women have become avoidant toward men because a noticeable portion of their sexual education stems from porn.
Or maybe there’s just not enough time. Some 20-something-year-olds have shied away from relationships to focus on their careers. With busy lives and the demands of post-secondary education, it’s hard to make love and sex a top priority. Often, it’s not until their career is established that people begin to look at the idea of a relationship.
But who really knows what the state of sex will be like in the coming years? If current trends persist, perhaps a prolonged sex recession is in store.
Wondering what the numbers actually are on this? Its an interesting read, as everything here makes sense, but its so hard to imagine, with the amount of over-sexualized content on social media and such.
Hi there!
Adam Maue (author) pointed out in the article that much of the reason why sex is declining among youth is that sexual content is oversaturated due to porn, making it less appealing for people to actually go out and find a partner when they have a visual representation on their computer screens. In terms of raw numbers, the CDC reported on their 2015 National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey that sexual activity among teens had decreased by 5.6% over just two years, which is quite alarming given the short time frame. This is American research, though we expect there to be Canadian research coming soon as this has sparked Canadian interest.
Hi there!
Adam Maue (author) pointed out in the article that much of the reason why sex is declining among youth is woman falsely accusing men of sexual harassment with regards to the #MeToo movement.
Hi David!
I feel this would be misinterpreting Adam’s article, as it doesn’t say that #MeToo and false accusations of harassment are why sex among millennials is declining because this is not the case. What we are pointing out in the article, rather, is that such a movement is causing people to be hypervigilant of sexual harassment and causing worry about overstepping boundaries. While it is important for people to be concerned about sexual assault, this worry has caused young people to not ask their coworkers out on dates, which in turn has contributed to a sex “recession.”
Hi David!
I believe that you misinterpreted what I said in my article. What I was pointing out is that #MeToo as a movement is causing people to worry about overstepping boundaries so they’ve withdrawn from the dating world, thus resulting in a sex “recession.”
Hi David!
I believe that you misinterpreted what I said in my article. What I was pointing out is that #MeToo as a movement is causing people to worry about overstepping boundaries so they’ve withdrawn from the dating world, thus resulting in a sex “recession.”