The diminishing sexual appetite resulting from the young and the free sheltered-in-place was already declining in the U.S. before the nation was locked down.
A study published last Friday by researchers at San Diego State University, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that between 2016 and 2018, the percentage of 18-24 year-old Americans surveyed who were sexually inactive jumped from around 19 percent to 31 percent. About one out of every three men in this category said they had no sex at all during the last 12 months.
This is said to be part of a trend that young people in the U.S. need a longer time period to mature into adulthood.
According to Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, “This includes the postponement of not just sexual activity but also other activities related to mating and reproduction, including dating, living with a partner, pregnancy, and birth.”
Professor Twenge added, “However, these reproductive trends have not occurred in isolation; instead, they are part of a broader cultural trend toward delayed development. For example, adolescents in the 2010s were also less likely to drive, drink alcohol, go out without their parents, and work at paid jobs compared with adolescents in previous decades.”
Lack of security in the job market is a key factor. “It is more difficult to go out and engage in sexual activities when you’re not financially independent of the parents.” The study specifically referenced less sexual activity among men unable to get full-time employment and those who were students.
In addition to the financial stress on young people, Professor Twenge singled out the easy and pervasive access to online entertainment. “Between the 24-hour availability of entertainment and the temptation to use smartphones and social media, sexual activity may not be as attractive as it once was… Put simply, there are now many more choices of things to do in the late evening than there once were and fewer opportunities to initiate sexual activity if both partners are engrossed in social media, electronic gaming, or binge watching.”
While the study showed the declining sex trend to be most prevalent among 18-34 single adults, it also showed married couples, both younger and older, having less sex than couples 20 years ago, with a greater number reporting they are less likely to have sex even once a week.
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Perhaps there other reasons for the decline in sexual activity other than those stated by Professor Twenge.
Could it be from the countless preservatives and artificial ingredients added to foods? Or the physical shape people are in from devouring massive quantities of junk food? Or from the huge amounts of prescription drugs and contaminants that have diminished the nation’s sex drive?
