Netflix and chill?
That’s become a common question in popular culture which quite frankly indicates the desire to have sex. It has everything to do with dating apps, casual sex and the general hook-up culture modern times has going on.
However, does that mean that today’s generation- the Millennials, are having a lot more frequent, casual sex than those before?
The short answer to this question is no.
The hook-up culture
Modern culture is typically associated with casual sex, one night stands, as well as a passiveness when it comes to serious relationships. I mean, Millenials definitely have a reputation for being basically social media-obsessed and sexually irresponsible.
With online dating apps, people have very convenient access to casual sex which means it is easier for them to engage in it. At least, much easier than it was for the generations before, not saying that casual sex was not a common practice back in the day- it always has been.
A lot of discussions and critiques have taken place in regards to Millenials, their habits and their interests. However, a generalized blanket statement is really insufficient when it comes down to the proper statistics.
Millennials are actually less sexually active than you might think
You would be surprised to find out that Millenials actually have less sex than the generations before them. As per research on the matter, it is concluded that young adults aged 20 to 24 are twice as likely to confess that they haven’t had a sexual partner since the age of 18 in comparison to adults the same age in the 1960s.
The research, which surveyed around 27,000 Americans, reports back that around 15 percent of the polled admitted to not having a sexual partner since turning 18, however, that number is 6 percent for the generation of the 1960s. Therefore, for Ryne Sherman of Florida Atlantic University, who is a co-author of the abovementioned research, the statistic speaks for itself.
Contrary to popular belief, frequent casual sex is in actuality not become more common due to dating apps or the internet in general.
Sherman has therefore summarised that there is lesser likeliness for hook-ups in this generation in comparison to the previous ones.
The statistics have spoken. Even though a substantial amount of people are indeed engaging in casual sex using dating apps such as Tinder, many more are not. In order to explain this occurrence, there are a few factors that need to be taken into consideration.
Such are the following:
- Living at home for longer
- Easy access to pornography
- The significant rise in video games (and the internet, as well)
Here is where Netflix comes into the picture.
Netflix is a massive platform for online streaming services and has amounted to 151 million subscribers, as per recent data from 2019. It has achieved massive amounts of growth since its international expansion in 2011 (having then only 21.5 million subscribers). By the look of the numbers, it is safe to say that more and more people are watching each time.
However, the question that remains is: Does this rise in popularity and influence have a part to play in the tendency of having less sex?
If you ask the research conducted by the Wall Street Journal, then yes. It is found out that one in four adults in romantic relationships admits to choosing streaming TV over having sex at least once in the span of the last six month.
Moreover, there is an estimated significant difference between the younger and older generations: 36 percent of the people between the ages of 18 to 38 reveal they have chosen Netflix over sex, while only 16 percent of the questioned above 39 say that they have done so as well.
Consequently, Kate Moyle, a relationship therapist, has made the following statement to UNILAD in regards to how the internet has changed the way people lead their lives:
Sex has slipped down our priority list and is a big source of pressure and anxiety for many, meaning that it perhaps doesn’t always offer the positives that it used to – particularly when there is an unlimited amount of entertainment via our screens and online services.
In conclusion, while there is a tendency to think of contemporary culture as one consisting of a lot of meaningless, casual sex, research actually indicates quite the opposite. While a lot of people may be engaging in casual sex via dating apps or the internet in general, plenty more are not.
There are a couple of factors that must be taken into account, however, the largest one may be the internet, more specifically online streaming services such as Netflix.
Research has shown that Millennials tend to choose Netflix over sex quite a bit of the time due to its convenient form of entertainment and accessibility.
So the phrase ‘let’s watch Netflix and chill’ can quite possibly be taken literally, especially having the revelations of this research in mind.
