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.
I'm not so sure. I think boredom is the biggest factor, so Netflix is probably the cause. For example the Indian government once tried offering electricity in rural areas to lower child birth rates. "If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won't get a chance to produce children,"[1]
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.
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.
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 naked women than all his ancestors combined. These women are far more physically attractive, sex-hungry and available than anyone he could meet in person. Today, after seeing countless videos of the the most physically attractive women imaginable, perfectly suited to his preference, taste and sexually proclivity, the average woman seems like a lame approximation for what can be accessed readily online. Men are far less willing to deal with all the pitfalls, annoyance and cost of dating when an approximation for sex, like porn, is much less costly and easily available.
>> "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.
Most porn stars probably don't fall into the "most physically attractive women imaginable" category, you're right. But you certainly can find pornographic videos with extremely attractive women, if you look for them. Of course the camerawork and editing makes a difference too. Nowadays there is quite a lot of well-produced porn on the internet and some porn stars do look like your "movie/pop 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.
If you have seen them with proper clothing and make-up in proper movies, most of them would not have much, if anything, to make them less attractive than regular movie/pop stars. The packaging context and presentation matters, and having them sing/play roles in Hollywood movies, creates all kinds of secondary attractiveness factors related to the content and presentation (as opposed to the merits of the person).
The opposite is also true. There are teens who believe e.g. that Jennifer Lawrence is a crazily attractive girl, whereas one could argue there are several just as, or even prettier, ones, in their high school. It's the added myth, styling, and exposure that's shoved in their minds that elevates her. (And similarly for male actors). Of course there's the occasional Errol Flynn or Brad Pitt, or Ingrid Bergman or Margot Robbie - but most of them are elevated ordinary people + Hollywood allure.
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.
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."
But the question they asked was: did you watch a pornographic movie in the last year? (yes/no)
This question does not make much sense in the current reality, where lots of people spend massive amounts of time watching online porn.
Watching one movie per year is something totally different from that.
Also, the type of porn has changed a lot over the years. And the choice of porn is now totally up to the user. I'm guessing this makes a huge difference too; at least this should be tested.
It's like these researchers are totally out of touch with reality.
I mean you could kind of flip it around, only instead of men and porn it's women and dating apps.
That the likes of tinder makes the most attractive men far more accessible to women, so they are no longer interested in the average man.
And similarly tinder apps and the like have drastically reduced the costs of dating compared to the past. It's private, you only get hit on by men you like. You can safely reject them etc...
I think this is just as inflammatory.
Are men really choosing turning away from women because they are "lame" compared to porn? At least for me porn is for when I'm not in a relationship or my s.o is occupied.
If I had to reach for a cause I would say it's a mix of economics and modern entertainment/past times being far less a social experience.
I was in rural village recently and it was pretty clear to me that people are going to hook up less if they are spending their weekends on Facebook and Netflix then dancing around a fire.
I'm loathe to even respond to this type of non-argument but I'll bite. You're calling my argument sexist because it points to behavioral differences between genders? Or is it because it points to differences that may not be 100% social construct?
I said "kind of", not "is". In principle this kind of argument can be done in an intellectually consistent way, with sources and statistics.
Instead you've followed a pattern I've seen time and time again.
An uncontentious fact (men are more visually aroused) followed by a unsupported train of thought that leads to a significantly speculative conclusion about the preferences/desires of a demographic that to some degree we find distasteful as a society.
If you evidence for your final claim I wouldn't have a problem, its just that this kind of discourse more often seems to pass bigotry off under the guise of just "speculation".
> I would attribute it more the glut of free online porn than netflix.
I can see why porn has an impact in people having less sex but, porn is nothing new. When I was a teenager in the 80s, porn was readily available in VHS. Slightly less convenient that online porn, but equivalent for most purpose.
> Men are far less willing to deal with all the pitfalls, annoyance and cost of dating
There's much more than sex in a relationship, and even in dating. Many people see dating as an enjoyable activity, not an annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for sex.
Possible but I doubt most people enjoy dating that much. From my estimation, most people are annoyed while they are on the market and feel better when they are settled into a relationship. In fact, I suspect that the crappiness of dating is an evolutionary mechanism that pushes people into monogamy. In other words, the fact that dating is unpleasurable makes people more monogamous, improving offspring chances. Just my speculation.
> I can see why porn has an impact in people having less sex but, porn is nothing new. When I was a teenager in the 80s, porn was readily available in VHS. Slightly less convenient that online porn, but equivalent for most purpose.
I don't really think the huge variety, instantly available without interaction with another human or any payment, viewable on a variety of devices, including handhelds ones you can take anywhere is “equivalent for most purposes” to VHS porn.
> Many people see dating as an enjoyable activity, not an annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for sex.
I dunno, I've known lots of people who saw dating as a annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for sex, and lots of people who see it as annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for a meaningful committed relationship, and relatively few who see dating in and of itself as an enjoyable thing, especially very few who do so after their early 20s.
I think porn encourages more real life encounters. Simulationing those parts of the brain can lead to more desire for more simulation at a deeper level which leads to more encounters.
From the abstract of the paper this article is about:
> Declines in sexual frequency were similar across gender, race, region, educational level, and work status and were largest among those in their 50s, those with school-age children, and those who did not watch pornography.
Porn isn't a viable explanation if the effect was larger among people who don't watch porn.
> Porn isn't a viable explanation if the effect was larger among people who don't watch porn.
It is if porn is ubiquitous enough in society and is setting (or communicating) changing cultural expectations and signaling mechanisms related to sex, and those who abstain are therefore missing out on that context.
Wow. So first men are vilified for being sexual creatures, now they are blamed for not having enough sex.
With all this twitter justice #metoo, who can blame men for not wanting to having anything to do with women. After all the shaming of Mike Pence for not wanting to meet alone with a woman, it sure seems like it was by far the best way to go.
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.
My girlfriend was called by some creeps at least couple of times on the streets of Amsterdam wintertime in winter clothes. Freaking insane.
Approaching women has its place like parties, social gatherings where you can actually dance or have conversation. If you have friends outing and friend brings his/her other friends that you have something in common is also ok. When you are random stranger it is never acceptable to hit on a girl.
Small talk should be ok but that does not constitute "approaching women" in context of this topic and should be carefull. If you are creep don't talk to random ladies, practice first with someone you know.
How did society get this fucked up, so that a guy should be scared of talking to a girl? I know you said "hitting on a girl", but you have no way to know if the girl will misunderstand you trying to have a friendly conversation with you coming on to her. Best advice is to stay far away from women in all aspects of life.
(I'm not invested in this, I've never really approached girls outside of parties/bars, and then only if they were clearly interested. I'm currently in a long-term relationship, but if that don't work out, I'm fully MGTOW.)
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.
Hacker News is designed to appeal to cowards: someone had an opinion I didn't like, lets downvote with no accountability.
I've seen multiple times in here that the users really liked the idea of people with different opinions should talk with each other instead of remaining in their own echo chamber.
But the walk is much harder than the talk, just see what's happening here with any decending opinion.
Dunno, I can't imagine most men actually preferring masturbation over sex when given the choice. Most men would consider themselves in a spot of sexual destitution if all they were doing was wanking.
I think more likely the modern male is barraged by messages like "approaching women is 'rapey'/creepy." And it's easier for people to get by without developing social skills. If men aren't approaching women, then nobody gets laid.
I reckon there's a gradual collapse in the confidence and self-identity of the modern western male that can be tied to some sort of Everyone Loves Raymond emasculation slash feminization going on in our culture.
For example, along with these positive women's rights messages that most men support, there also are messages that look a lot like women-can-do-no-wrong which end up alienating men. Or something I can only describe as male-shaming. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703779704576073...
Men have been able to knock one out for free since, at least, the evolution of opposable thumbs (and those probably aren't strictly necessary). Porn isn't material.
Not with the same stimulation and reason, that's why many Japanese men are steering clear of marriage and children, they want to do what their minds are programmed to do, not deal with tasks women traditionally do , and for them, they don't need a relationship to fulfill their other needs.
According to the abstract, the declines are driven by people married or living together, and especially people in their 50s, with kids, and those who DONT view pornography.
So according to the paper pornography is a complement to partnered sex, not a substitute.
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?
True - in logic/philosophy, implies means a sufficient basis for so it is just a semantic problem. I wouldn't say that a result can be necessary for a cause though, that is dangerously circular.
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'
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!
There has been a decline in sex over the past decade. It can't be purely coincidental that while the world became witness to a depressing depression, people are having less sex. After all, depression is often linked to reduced libido... and if you're constantly stressed out over your (and your family's) future, you might not have enough energy to enjoy sex either, which in turn can form a negative feedback loop.
I’m surprised there has been so much less response to this comment than so many of the others. It’s very plausible that the root causes of widespread depression and a widespread decrease in sex are related. I’m not sure you can easily pull out any one cause, but it would be reasonable to suspect that modern work and social habits are leading factors (possibly also diet).
On Hacker News it's totally fine to blame men: "It's men that watch to much porn".
If you on the other hand suggest that maybe #metoo, unfair divorce court etc. has something to do with it (meaning maybe woman are also part of the issue), you get flagged or downvoted to hell.
I've experienced a traumatic event recently. After being rejected by hundreds of women, I'm still a virgin at 24. Recently, I saw a video in weird corners of the internet of a very cute girl copulating with some dog. Dog can get laid easily while for me it's impossible at this point. Women are telling me that I'm BENEATH a dog. They'd rather be copulating with a dog, cucumber, dildo or stay single than be with me :(
That isn't true man, I was 23 before I had a GF and anything up until that was when I was ruined on ale and so was the girl and in a way didn't really count.
At the end of the day, if you really want to just have sex just pay for it like everything else in modern society and get it off your chest. Done.
Well, for one thing, you know exactly what you're getting into when fucking a dildo. It doesn't come with feelings or emotions or a sense of inferiority. There's no social baggage attached to the arrangement. It's also always available to fuck. It's not gonna tell its friends nor yours. You just fuck it and clean it.
So don't take it personally.
Same reason why men and women watch porn even when they are in a fulfilling relationship. Most people aren't in a relationship with a sexual object constantly available at the snap of a finger. Masturbation helps bridge asymmetries in libido and availability. It's not personal.
Anyways, I agree with the other commenter. If you're feeling that virginity is winding around your self-identity, then I think the healthiest thing to do is pay for some sex. You'll be in a better mental place.
If you've actually approached hundreds of women without any success, that's pretty concerning. But I have a hard time believing you've actually directly approached that many women without any results. For example, people more likely err on the side of being too indirect and then assuming it's rejection when the other person doesn't do the escalation for them.
(I can't reply to your original comment because some soulless person decided to flag it instead of helping a guy in a lot of pain.)
Seriously, women are not worth the pain you're feeling. I'm not the biggest stud, by I've had short relations and quite long relations, and no matter what, the juice ain't worth the squeeze.
Look into MGTOW (men going their own way). There's a lot of wisdom in that community. Go to mgtow.reddit.com and read the sidebar.
All the best brother. Please don't do something stupid!
Dont feel bad - it has nothing to do with value or worth. Most people with familys here on HN dont realize they wont have grand-children for example. All that tech killed the instincts.
Grand-cats and horses maybee.
I'd blame work and stress. Your average person is working longer hours for less financial benefit, while the cost of basics (housing and health care) has gone way up.
Longer working hours for less money makes people tired and stressed...two instant mood killers; and a condition that is likely chronic among many.
"Netflix and chill" is the modern term for hooking up, but for many it probably simply means what it means...to sit and relax.
I don't blame Netflix or phones or anything other than the fact that simply getting by in the USA has become a chore for many, and Netflix and phones are the salve, not the root cause.
I blame smart phones, but blame is a strong word. We no communicate with texting, social networking, and many other means than in-person conversations. Teenagers are electing to get a drivers license later in life because they don't need a car to be connected to their friends. Less in-person interaction results in less opportunity for intimate interaction.
I blame the womens movement, and that's a good thing. More women are placing their careers first, and getting around to having a family later and later in their lives.
I also blame the economy. The recession ended technically, meaning we stopped getting worse. But our economy isn't seeing the wage growth that would indicate a prosperous environment that encourages recreational activities, and procreation.
I don't have a citation and I have no plans to dig one up. But everything I have ever read indicates that poor people have less sex than rich ones because they are just struggling to survive and can't manage to fit it into their lives. Historically, Americans had more sex on average than people in other countries because we had a large comfortably well off middle class.
I find it ironic that a magazine named Fortune would miss the obvious angle that this is likely related to the general financial distress in the world. It suggests Americans are too poor for luxury items like regular sex. They are working longer hours, exhausted and stressed out, so sex is just not happening.
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[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 125 ms ] thread[1] https://www.treehugger.com/culture/indian-government-pushes-...
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-017-0953-1
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.
The opposite is also true. There are teens who believe e.g. that Jennifer Lawrence is a crazily attractive girl, whereas one could argue there are several just as, or even prettier, ones, in their high school. It's the added myth, styling, and exposure that's shoved in their minds that elevates her. (And similarly for male actors). Of course there's the occasional Errol Flynn or Brad Pitt, or Ingrid Bergman or Margot Robbie - but most of them are elevated ordinary people + Hollywood allure.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/18/why-we-...
Laws of supply and demand apply here too.
https://sci-hub.tw/10.1007/s10508-017-0953-1
This question does not make much sense in the current reality, where lots of people spend massive amounts of time watching online porn.
Watching one movie per year is something totally different from that.
Also, the type of porn has changed a lot over the years. And the choice of porn is now totally up to the user. I'm guessing this makes a huge difference too; at least this should be tested.
It's like these researchers are totally out of touch with reality.
I have not ever watched a porn movie.
File this under “How to bias your survey results to hide information and make it look like your project needs to be funded for a few more years”?
I mean you could kind of flip it around, only instead of men and porn it's women and dating apps.
That the likes of tinder makes the most attractive men far more accessible to women, so they are no longer interested in the average man.
And similarly tinder apps and the like have drastically reduced the costs of dating compared to the past. It's private, you only get hit on by men you like. You can safely reject them etc...
I think this is just as inflammatory.
Are men really choosing turning away from women because they are "lame" compared to porn? At least for me porn is for when I'm not in a relationship or my s.o is occupied.
If I had to reach for a cause I would say it's a mix of economics and modern entertainment/past times being far less a social experience.
I was in rural village recently and it was pretty clear to me that people are going to hook up less if they are spending their weekends on Facebook and Netflix then dancing around a fire.
I think that has already started to happen: https://medium.com/@worstonlinedater/tinder-experiments-ii-g...
I'm loathe to even respond to this type of non-argument but I'll bite. You're calling my argument sexist because it points to behavioral differences between genders? Or is it because it points to differences that may not be 100% social construct?
I said "kind of", not "is". In principle this kind of argument can be done in an intellectually consistent way, with sources and statistics.
Instead you've followed a pattern I've seen time and time again.
An uncontentious fact (men are more visually aroused) followed by a unsupported train of thought that leads to a significantly speculative conclusion about the preferences/desires of a demographic that to some degree we find distasteful as a society.
If you evidence for your final claim I wouldn't have a problem, its just that this kind of discourse more often seems to pass bigotry off under the guise of just "speculation".
I can see why porn has an impact in people having less sex but, porn is nothing new. When I was a teenager in the 80s, porn was readily available in VHS. Slightly less convenient that online porn, but equivalent for most purpose.
> Men are far less willing to deal with all the pitfalls, annoyance and cost of dating
There's much more than sex in a relationship, and even in dating. Many people see dating as an enjoyable activity, not an annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for sex.
Possible but I doubt most people enjoy dating that much. From my estimation, most people are annoyed while they are on the market and feel better when they are settled into a relationship. In fact, I suspect that the crappiness of dating is an evolutionary mechanism that pushes people into monogamy. In other words, the fact that dating is unpleasurable makes people more monogamous, improving offspring chances. Just my speculation.
I don't really think the huge variety, instantly available without interaction with another human or any payment, viewable on a variety of devices, including handhelds ones you can take anywhere is “equivalent for most purposes” to VHS porn.
> Many people see dating as an enjoyable activity, not an annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for sex.
I dunno, I've known lots of people who saw dating as a annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for sex, and lots of people who see it as annoyance that stands between them and their appetite for a meaningful committed relationship, and relatively few who see dating in and of itself as an enjoyable thing, especially very few who do so after their early 20s.
Now you can have your _exact_ fantasy, at no social embarrassment, in the privacy of your home.
I dunno about you, but I really go for that third dimension.
> Declines in sexual frequency were similar across gender, race, region, educational level, and work status and were largest among those in their 50s, those with school-age children, and those who did not watch pornography.
Porn isn't a viable explanation if the effect was larger among people who don't watch porn.
It is if porn is ubiquitous enough in society and is setting (or communicating) changing cultural expectations and signaling mechanisms related to sex, and those who abstain are therefore missing out on that context.
With all this twitter justice #metoo, who can blame men for not wanting to having anything to do with women. After all the shaming of Mike Pence for not wanting to meet alone with a woman, it sure seems like it was by far the best way to go.
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.
You can be fired just because a female misunderstands what you say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye4fAZTkvNg
There are plenty of false rape allegations. Here's a particular egregious example: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4818874/Jemma-Beale-...
My girlfriend was called by some creeps at least couple of times on the streets of Amsterdam wintertime in winter clothes. Freaking insane.
Approaching women has its place like parties, social gatherings where you can actually dance or have conversation. If you have friends outing and friend brings his/her other friends that you have something in common is also ok. When you are random stranger it is never acceptable to hit on a girl.
Small talk should be ok but that does not constitute "approaching women" in context of this topic and should be carefull. If you are creep don't talk to random ladies, practice first with someone you know.
How did society get this fucked up, so that a guy should be scared of talking to a girl? I know you said "hitting on a girl", but you have no way to know if the girl will misunderstand you trying to have a friendly conversation with you coming on to her. Best advice is to stay far away from women in all aspects of life.
(I'm not invested in this, I've never really approached girls outside of parties/bars, and then only if they were clearly interested. I'm currently in a long-term relationship, but if that don't work out, I'm fully MGTOW.)
Hacker News is designed to appeal to cowards: someone had an opinion I didn't like, lets downvote with no accountability.
I've seen multiple times in here that the users really liked the idea of people with different opinions should talk with each other instead of remaining in their own echo chamber.
But the walk is much harder than the talk, just see what's happening here with any decending opinion.
I think more likely the modern male is barraged by messages like "approaching women is 'rapey'/creepy." And it's easier for people to get by without developing social skills. If men aren't approaching women, then nobody gets laid.
I reckon there's a gradual collapse in the confidence and self-identity of the modern western male that can be tied to some sort of Everyone Loves Raymond emasculation slash feminization going on in our culture.
For example, along with these positive women's rights messages that most men support, there also are messages that look a lot like women-can-do-no-wrong which end up alienating men. Or something I can only describe as male-shaming. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703779704576073...
So according to the paper pornography is a complement to partnered sex, not a substitute.
Any causation mechanism will also have a correlation in its base.
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
There has been a decline in sex over the past decade. It can't be purely coincidental that while the world became witness to a depressing depression, people are having less sex. After all, depression is often linked to reduced libido... and if you're constantly stressed out over your (and your family's) future, you might not have enough energy to enjoy sex either, which in turn can form a negative feedback loop.
Welcome to the brand new (joyless) world.
If you on the other hand suggest that maybe #metoo, unfair divorce court etc. has something to do with it (meaning maybe woman are also part of the issue), you get flagged or downvoted to hell.
At the end of the day, if you really want to just have sex just pay for it like everything else in modern society and get it off your chest. Done.
So don't take it personally.
Same reason why men and women watch porn even when they are in a fulfilling relationship. Most people aren't in a relationship with a sexual object constantly available at the snap of a finger. Masturbation helps bridge asymmetries in libido and availability. It's not personal.
Anyways, I agree with the other commenter. If you're feeling that virginity is winding around your self-identity, then I think the healthiest thing to do is pay for some sex. You'll be in a better mental place.
If you've actually approached hundreds of women without any success, that's pretty concerning. But I have a hard time believing you've actually directly approached that many women without any results. For example, people more likely err on the side of being too indirect and then assuming it's rejection when the other person doesn't do the escalation for them.
Seriously, women are not worth the pain you're feeling. I'm not the biggest stud, by I've had short relations and quite long relations, and no matter what, the juice ain't worth the squeeze.
Look into MGTOW (men going their own way). There's a lot of wisdom in that community. Go to mgtow.reddit.com and read the sidebar.
All the best brother. Please don't do something stupid!
Longer working hours for less money makes people tired and stressed...two instant mood killers; and a condition that is likely chronic among many.
"Netflix and chill" is the modern term for hooking up, but for many it probably simply means what it means...to sit and relax.
I don't blame Netflix or phones or anything other than the fact that simply getting by in the USA has become a chore for many, and Netflix and phones are the salve, not the root cause.
> The decline was not linked to longer working hours
I blame smart phones, but blame is a strong word. We no communicate with texting, social networking, and many other means than in-person conversations. Teenagers are electing to get a drivers license later in life because they don't need a car to be connected to their friends. Less in-person interaction results in less opportunity for intimate interaction.
I blame the womens movement, and that's a good thing. More women are placing their careers first, and getting around to having a family later and later in their lives.
I also blame the economy. The recession ended technically, meaning we stopped getting worse. But our economy isn't seeing the wage growth that would indicate a prosperous environment that encourages recreational activities, and procreation.
I find it ironic that a magazine named Fortune would miss the obvious angle that this is likely related to the general financial distress in the world. It suggests Americans are too poor for luxury items like regular sex. They are working longer hours, exhausted and stressed out, so sex is just not happening.