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Americans Are Having Less Sex Than 20 Years Ago, Study Finds (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: American adults reported having nine fewer romps a year in the early 2010s than they did in the late 1990s -- dropping from an average of about 62 times a year between 1995 and 2000 to around 53 a year between 2010 and 2014. Researchers saw declines across ages, races, religions, education levels, employment statuses, and regions. They linked the sagging numbers to two trends: an increase in singletons over that period -- who tend to have less sex than married or partnered people -- plus a slow-down in the sex lives of married and coupled people. But the drivers of those trends are still unclear. The study is based on data from a long-standing national survey called the General Social Survey (GSS). It involves a nationally representative sample of Americans over 18 years old, surveyed most years between 1972 and 2014. The new study involved responses from 26,620 Americans. Specifically, researchers found that married people's annual whoopee frequency dropped from an average of nearly 69 in the 1995-2000 period to just below 56 in the 2010-2014 period. The unmarried saw their lovemaking drop from 54 per year to 51 in the same timeframes. Meanwhile, the number of people without steady partners -- married or otherwise -- rose from 26 percent of survey respondents in 2006 to 33 percent in 2014. People who took the biggest hits in the bedroom since the 1990s were those with a college degree (about 15 fewer times a year) and people living in the South (about 13 fewer times a year). The study has been published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Correlation with the rise of smartphones, tablets, social media, video on demand, ubiquitous porn, and poor interpersonal skills?
...because people are evolving from homo sapiens into shpherical sapiens.
Do these figures include jacking it to Hentai?
You are welcome on my lawn.
folks are making about 20% less than their parents did so it's not surprising. You need money to date. Plus being stressed about money all the time puts a damper on things.
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No, that's silly. The frequency of sex has to do with both people (and their respective schedules), and whether they actually communicate their needs to each other. When I watch porn it just makes me want to fuck the living crap out of my wife all the more.. that being said, I have to pay attention carefully to the signals, and do some things I normally don't really think about or feel like doing. As an added bonus, she's finally found her g-spot, and does this crazy thing with her hips, well.. whoosh!
Also, "the average woman does not compare..."; in what way? Doesn't she have a brain, and all the other naughty bits? I've been with stunning girls who were like cold limp beef in bed, and grey-skinned Turkish pig-women who were completely fucking hot. It's all in your minds, my friends.. Average is far far better than none.
It's like the weather: When it's crappy out, I remind myself that it's better than no weather at all.
Too much Fa(r)cebook.
Seriously, the number of people who spend all their relaxation time buried in that pile of steaming shite
and ignoring their partner is just astounding, no wonder no intimacy happens....
Especially, I have to say it sorry, women. Many seem to spend much of their lives following all the other
women they know, and thinking that everyone else lives a better life than them (while also themselves
only posting the highlights of their own lives there, as glamorized as possible..).
Ignoring the usual 'no one on slashdot actually has physical relations' jokes, that really is the problem,
people are just becoming emotionally detached through not enough face to face time, so is anyone
actually surprised they are having less sex?
Trying to explain it to someone caught up in that BS though is like pulling the pin on a hand grenade, then
deciding its juggling time.. They will violently claim they dont spend 'that much' time on there, and that
anyway its only to keep in touch with their friends, and that it has no impact on their happiness or relationship.
That much denial is a scary thing...
Bringing down the average for everyone in our time zone. My wife's motto is "once every five years, whether we need it or not". Thank god for reddit gonewild. Oops. Can I edit that comment??
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I'm definitely having less sex than I did 20 years ago!
Please tell me you're not 23.
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
They don't need fapping lotion in places where men have normal (non-mutilated) dicks.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's due to the over prescribing of anti-depressants. SSRI's are notorious for killing off your sex drive, and doctors prescribe them for everything under the sun.
I'm closing on 60 and still averaging over 150 a year (and about 9 hours a week). One may be related to the other-- sex may be of less value to average folks who take 3 to 15 minutes, half the women don't have an orgasm, etc.
Biggest suggestion I can make is to have your setup where the man can stand-- I prefer a inexpensive massage table. The height is adjustable. If she wants to ride cowboy, you can still lay down on it. It's comfortable but not so soft that you are fighting a mattress that's absorbing all your energy.
But for the guy- doing a 2 hour pushup is much harder than dancing for 2 hours.
Next, I'd say to guys *always* make sure she has an orgasm. Your orgasm is actually the optional one if you want to have a lot of sex- not hers.
And as you get older, look into tantric sex. But a little denial will actually make your interest stronger. And induces you to naturally be nice to her, complement her, etc.
I see so many couples who kill their sex lives thru random rejection. That's just a really deadly trap. One asks the other for sex and is rejected. After a few iterations, they stop asking.
To the women, I'd say- guys need to feel special and you gotta flatter them. That doesn't mean putting on lingerie and expecting them to get aroused. That works on 20 year olds but it fails against football and video games even for 28 year olds much less 30 year olds. Don't believe, "All I have to do is show up naked". No. You need to flirt. You need to touch. You need to express interest. Sure- he needs to do the same. But the male ego is a real thing. And even if he thinks he wants it- if his ego is torn up, the rocket isn't launching. Penetrative sex isn't the only show in town but it is the most important to many couples (and even women who feel validated that the male rose to the occasion).
To both sides: Brush and floss your teeth. A mouth that smells like decay isn't sexy. I don't even think I've ever seen a rule of 34 for that. For other body odors and scents- you need to talk to your partner and find out what they like. Antiseptic is good for some, but a little humanity is good for others and some folks like it ripe.
Anyway.. sounds like a really low rate. It's a wonderful human activity and can be a lot of fun.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
oink?
Children. Yep, having children is the best birth control. And the 2000s had a spike in birth rates. In fact, the underlying cause of the housing bubble (not the finances which allowed it, but the behavior which these finances paid for) was people starting new families. The wedding industry boomed as well. And well, the saying is pretty old, but it still holds true. The best birth control is having children.
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Too much Fa(r)cebook. ...
Seriously, the number of people who spend all their relaxation time buried in that pile of steaming shite
and ignoring their partner is just astounding, no wonder no intimacy happens
Especially, I have to say it sorry, women. Many seem to spend much of their lives following all the other
women they know, and thinking that everyone else lives a better life than them (while also themselves
only posting the highlights of their own lives there, as glamorized as possible..).
Bingo!
I totally second that. Had precisely that experience with my last attempt to build a feasible relationship.
People need a basic ettiquette when it comes to social media and smartphones. Smartphone, tablet and laptop off when you're having quality time with your SO is my rule.
Facebook is not a social network, it's a global mental illness.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
As women move further up the ladder economically they are less and less dependent on men. While women still have their own inherent sexual drive, their sex drive is lower than men for a variety of reasons -- when they are younger, due to the inherent risks of pregnancy and child-rearing, and as they age, due to the decline in fertility and the increased risks of childbirth that come with aging.
I think there's all kinds of evolutionary biology that suggests that sex drive in women is tied to the availability a reliable provider. Pregnant women and women with small children have much greater survival vulnerability -- reduced mobility, increases in risks from physical threats, increased nutritional requirements for both them and any offspring too young to participate in food gathering. And this remains true whether you're talking about a hunter-gatherer community or contemporary American economics -- pregnancy and child-bearing are significant drags on female economic advancement in our economy.
Not only does having a reliable economic provider create the conditions for reduced child-bearing risk and increase innate sex drive, it also creates an environment where women are more likely to meet male sexual demands because of their economic dependency. They have both fewer disincentives for sexual activity and incentives to meet their partners demands for sexual contact even when their own sexual desire thresholds aren't met.
I think this goes some way to explaining why conservatives favor traditional female roles -- increased female dependency leads to increased male access to sexuality.
The way to improve the sagging sexual numbers in the US is probably much stronger economic rights for pregnant women (reduce economic risks associated with pregnancy). It won't help women at the end or past their fertility, though, since nature is already doing its job to reduce desire via declining hormones to prevent high risk pregnancies or because pregnancy is not possible.