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Let’s talk about sex

More and more research demonstrates that millennials have less sex than any generation before (I guess since the 1920s since we hardly have any reliable statistics from the rest of the history).

More and more research demonstrates that millennials have less sex than any generation before (I guess since the 1920s since we hardly have any reliable statistics from the rest of the history). When I say millennials or Generation Y, I’m talking people who are 20-30 years old, those who were born and raised at the aftermath of the sex revolution.

Those are people who grew up at the times when anything could be sold through the image of a somewhat-naked woman – be it cars, new apartments, groceries, clothes or dog food. Sex was everywhere, at the magazines' covers, on TV, in the books, on billboards, on vehicles and clothes. Pop-music stars hardly ever had more than underwear and a couple of feet of stripped material to wear on stage and in the videos; they were dancing sex and singing about sex. (Today it’s hard to believe that classy Vicky Beckham was one of the Spice Girls).

And now scientists say that these people who spent their childhood and teen ages in that world of sex, don’t really care about it anymore.

There are a number of changes that took place over the years, which led us to these results. First, scientists believe that the main issue with Ys is the virtual world we all live in now. But for millennials, social networks were a norm since their early years. There is no more need to go talk to the neighbour asking for advice in reality. There is no need to adjust to the environment and society around you. If you don’t like people next door, you can just stay at home and find those who will satisfy your intellectual and emotional needs anywhere else without stepping out of your comfort zone and having any physical relationships.

The other thing that exists in huge quantities on the Internet is porn. It also adds to that sense of knowing everything about the world of sex, and at the same time pushes the often-not-so-glamorous real experience even further away. And the wide choice of all kinds of gadgets that contemporary young adults are really good with is available through the web as well (why worry about being spotted at one of those stores).

Besides, a lot of people, belonging to generation Y, refuse to grow up and leave parents’ houses not just when they turn 18, but when they are 25 and even almost 30. The absence of privacy with a good chance of mom knocking at the door makes physical relations quite problematic, but the real issue is actually deeper. Sex and everything that followed (family, kids) used to be one of the main ways to take responsibilities and prove maturity. When you are young you usually have no money for big moves, and there weren’t too many career choices in a less globalized world.

Now everything is possible and there are too many decisions to make, there is no time for sex. A lot of Ys who focus on careers say dating and sex is a waste of time since this is not what you can put on the CV. On top of that, the world has literally turned into everyone’s oyster with millions of various opportunities available. In this crazy exciting life, sex, one of the strongest human stimulus, is losing in the race when you can do anything you want like travelling across the world to see an alive volcano upheaving blue lava (yes, it is real and a must see).

And after all, forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest when it’s off-limits. And after learning all they could during the early stages of life, millennials focus on serious relationships, emotions and feelings. Which is definitely a good thing (especially when we recall some sad consequences of the sex revolution). The more serious attitude towards family and life choices helps us as humanity move forward.

But the general tendency is warring. I don’t like talks of “It used to be so good, and now it’s all bad”-kind. Life almost always seems better in retrospective, the grass seems greener, the trees seem taller, and the world seems better. In reality, it’s just always different. We may get irritated by the children’s ‘phone-addiction’ all we want, but gadgets will probably only get more entwined into our lives. The social norm will change and the new issues for the next generation to whine about will emerge. (Probably our kids will eat their offsprings’ heads off, saying something like, “Oh, when we were growing up, all we had was phones and tablets, we had to pave our way exploring life through the Internet. You should go on Facebook and try talking to people instead of spending all day with robots!” or whatever else the future will have for us). However, seems that scientists believe that the satisfaction millennials find in other areas of life and their indifference to sex may scrutinize the very existence of future generations.

So I guess we should quit talking that much about sex and just start having it more (only for the welfare of humankind).