Do 18-24 year olds have sex any more

[StillStunned]

As to actual reasons, well people will bring their own world views to that question. But younger people are really not very happy at present.

I grew up during the Cold War, only a few hundred kilometres from the border with East Germany. NATO armies marching through my town year after year as part of the sabre rattling. Watching the F-16s practising dogfights overhead several times a week.

And it was a fact of life. It had started before I was born, and everyone was prepared to assume that the only way it would end was in nuclear devastation.

In between we had violent terrorism. ETA, IRA, RAF, depending where you lived or chose to go on holiday.

Not only that, we saw the way the previous generation was fucking up the planet. Remember the Ozone Layer thing?Once the Cold War fizzled out, that became the next big shadow hanging over us. Then there was the uncertainty of Y2K, and then we were in the third millennium and new stuff happened.

Younger people aren't happy now, perhaps, but that's nothing new.

 

[FrancesScott]

Younger people aren't happy now, perhaps, but that's nothing new.

I acknowledged that most generations have their challenges. However, surveys that have been repeated at ten yearly points for many decades now show today’s young people as being much more depressed and fatalistic than previous generations at the same age.

That’s a fact. Whether their hopelessness is justified is more a matter of opinion and / or debate.

 

[SimonDoom]

Excessive reproduction is also maladaptive. Species that exceed their carrying capacity experience population crashes, and we humans are well past ours.

How do you know this? What's it based on?

It's not based on evidence. The evidence is that the average standard of living for humans on earth is higher than it has ever been. That's not really in dispute.

Population pessimists have been making doom and gloom predictions for 200 years, since Malthus. They've always been wrong. The reality is that know how has always outpaced population growth. Some of the best places to live on earth are the most crowded. We are better able to feed 8 billion people today than we were 2 billion 100 years ago.

We probably are not close to population "carrying capacity.". Even more importantly, we will probably never know because population growth is slowing so fast that by the end of this century the human population will be shrinking.

 

[StillStunned]

That’s a fact. Whether their hopelessness is justified is more a matter of opinion and / or debate.

I suppose we had 80s music. Even the songs about nuclear war and dystopia were excellent.

 

[iwatchus]

I grew up during the Cold War, only a few hundred kilometres from the border with East Germany. NATO armies marching through my town year after year as part of the sabre rattling. Watching the F-16s practising dogfights overhead several times a week.

And it was a fact of life. It had started before I was born, and everyone was prepared to assume that the only way it would end was in nuclear devastation.

In between we had violent terrorism. ETA, IRA, RAF, depending where you lived or chose to go on holiday.

Not only that, we saw the way the previous generation was fucking up the planet. Remember the Ozone Layer thing?Once the Cold War fizzled out, that became the next big shadow hanging over us. Then there was the uncertainty of Y2K, and then we were in the third millennium and new stuff happened.

Younger people aren't happy now, perhaps, but that's nothing new.

I lived through similar times -- I think I am a bit older than you, although I was nowhere near the frontlines like you were. I remember the put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodby drills in elementary school.

There was fear out of that. Sometimes debilitating fear. But there was a hope that if we could just get past it, everything would be fine. And while there was concern about the environment, the environmental movement, which mostly matches the timing of the cold war, was much more one of hope.

Talk to people under about 35 and it is not fear of a catastrophic end, with hope about what could happen if we can avoid that. It is a feeling od despair that we are doomed and there is little hope for a bright future. Whether it be climate change or economic collapse or political collapse into neo-fascism, there are many real concerns. And this is the first generation that is economically worse off than their parents since the depression, which even predates me (but not my parents), Throw in the first true global pandemic in a century. I can understand being gloomy.

 

[iwatchus]

It's not based on evidence. The evidence is that the average standard of living for humans on earth is higher than it has ever been. That's not really in dispute.

The median income in the US is dropping, It actually bounced back a bit during the Biden years, but "the big beautiful bill" will fix that.

We are supplementing our standard of living globally by using non-renewable resources. A bacterial colony could be said to be booming right until it uses up its resources and they all die off.

 

[SimonDoom]

I acknowledged that most generations have their challenges. However, surveys that have been repeated at ten yearly points for many decades now show today’s young people as being much more depressed and fatalistic than previous generations at the same age.

That’s a fact. Whether their hopelessness is justified is more a matter of opinion and / or debate.

It's a fact that people feel this way, but that doesn't make it real.

By almost every objective measure, a young person today faces a better world than we faced in, say, 1975, 50 years ago.

Housing is expensive, but that's the result of policies that could be changed. And, even so, houses today are bigger than they were then and home ownership rates are about the same.

Food is better. So are health care, entertainment, travel, communication devices and opportunities, gender and racial equality, cars, airplanes. The crime rate is better. The world is less violent. Workplaces are much safer. Absolute poverty is nowhere near what it used to be.

There's always stuff to complain about, but what stands out to me is that this generation absolutely is the most complaining generation in history. I don't blame them. I blame the boomer and gen x parents that raised them to feel this way.

 

[NC_Coastal]

This is what my two children in college (20 and 22) are telling me: College students nearing graduation fear the world we're leaving them. We're telling them loud and clear that we don't care about climate change, and we don't care about taking care of those who can't take care of themselves. Early education has been taken from the teachers and put in the hands of modern-day Nazis. Higher education is being ridiculed. Home ownership for the middle class is a fading dream. Religion has been highjacked worldwide, and, speaking from the new American point of view, our plan is to remove everyone of color and replace them with newborn white babies from trad-wife lifestyles.
Neither of them have any intention of playing along. I fear I will have no grandchildren when I get old (er).

 

[SimonDoom]

The median income in the US is dropping, It actually bounced back a bit during the Biden years, but "the big beautiful bill" will fix that.

We are supplementing our standard of living globally by using non-renewable resources. A bacterial colony could be said to be booming right until it uses up its resources and they all die off.

This is the pessimist's gambit. "Sure, if you look at how things are right now compared to the past, they look ok. But the trends are bad. We can't sustain what we are doing. Therefore, we are doomed."

But this has always been true. It was true when Malthus made his predictions. What Malthus failed to see, and what modern pessimists fail to see, is that trends don't continue. We figure out how to do things better. As I said before, we can better feed 8 billion people today than we could 2 billion in the past.

The earth is not dying. I feel reasonably confident that the earth in 50 years will be a much better place for humans to live than it is now.

So, people, keep writing your smut. Future generations of 18-24 year olds who aren't having enough sex will be counting on you.

 

[iwatchus]

This is the pessimist's gambit. "Sure, if you look at how things are right now compared to the past, they look ok. But the trends are bad. We can't sustain what we are doing. Therefore, we are doomed."

But this has always been true. It was true when Malthus made his predictions. What Malthus failed to see, and what modern pessimists fail to see, is that trends don't continue. We figure out how to do things better. As I said before, we can better feed 8 billion people today than we could 2 billion in the past.

The earth is not dying. I feel reasonably confident that the earth in 50 years will be a much better place for humans to live than it is now.

So, people, keep writing your smut. Future generations of 18-24 year olds who aren't having enough sex will be counting on you.

By both the surveys that have been taken for decades and talking to my students, the younger generation does not share your optimism. You may disagree with them, but the evidence is pretty strong that the younger generation thinks their outlooks suck.

I think I am a little older than you, and have, by most measures, lived a pretty charmed and privileged life. But I think they are more right than you are.

 

[iwatchus]

It's a fact that people feel this way, but that doesn't make it real.

By almost every objective measure, a young person today faces a better world than we faced in, say, 1975, 50 years ago.

Housing is expensive, but that's the result of policies that could be changed. And, even so, houses today are bigger than they were then and home ownership rates are about the same.

Food is better. So are health care, entertainment, travel, communication devices and opportunities, gender and racial equality, cars, airplanes. The crime rate is better. The world is less violent. Workplaces are much safer. Absolute poverty is nowhere near what it used to be.

There's always stuff to complain about, but what stands out to me is that this generation absolutely is the most complaining generation in history. I don't blame them. I blame the boomer and gen x parents that raised them to feel this way.

This is almost inarguably wrong. The percent of the GDP held by a typical twenty something is notably smaller than it was. The cost of housing compared to median income is massively worse. Personal debt is far worse. The improvement in healthcare largely depends on your economic bracket and your zip code. For most young people it is about the same but trending down.

Workplaces are safer, but you are monitored much more closely and expected to work more hours for less pay relative to basic expenses. Luxury goods are much cheaper (trips to Europe, for example), but everything else is much worse compared to CPI. Which is worse than the growth in pay.

Health insurance is becoming more and more a responsibility of the employee. Retirement appears to be a pipe dream to the average pipe dream, while we still had pensions and social security seemed safe. And didn't keep moving older and older.

I could go on. In almost every real economic and social measure, things are actually much worse for the middle 50-75%.

 

[FrancesScott]

It's a fact that people feel this way,

That’s what I said

but that doesn't make it real.

That’s also what I said

But much of the rest of this thread is based on people’s feelings. Sadly people’s feelings have much more of an influence on policy that boring old facts.

And it’s probably not great advice to tell depressed youths to snap out of it as they have never had it so good.

I worry that the old have lost all empathy.

Last point, I’m not really a young person in the sense meant in the surveys. But I’m still in touch with what it felt to be one.

It’s generally not very well received when the financially secure (which now includes me) tell those struggling that it’s all fine. You could argue that was a losing strategy for the Democrats.

 

[Nynah]

Housing is expensive, but that's the result of policies that could be changed.

Do the forces that control these policies have any reason to change them? The cost of housing has risen since 1975 and shows no signs of abating.

Median household income has also increased but it has not kept pace with housing costs. The median sale price of a new home in 1975 was $39,200. Today it is $367,969. This is a 839% increase. The median household income in 1975 was $11,800. The median household income in 2025 is $69,278 for single earners and $87,659 for dual income. These are 487% and 642% increases respectively, which look great but when you compare that to the increase for housing costs, those are vastly skewed. In simpler terms, in 1975, you had to spend 3.3 times your income in order to afford a house. Today, if you are a single person, you must spend 5.3 times your income to afford a house, while also dealing with the general cost of everything else being higher.

Food is better. So are health care, entertainment, travel, communication devices and opportunities

These fall under the "general cost of everything else being higher". Everything is objectively better in terms of quality through technological innovation, but you still need to pay for it and some people still cannot afford to.

Opportunities are probably better if you're cis and white. If you're anything else, I doubt it.

gender and racial equality

There has been some progress yes, and I will concede it's better today than it was in 1975. But that bar is very low and the state of the world is sliding back towards 1975 rather than moving forward.

The world is less violent.

This is not as easy to quantify but with everything going on in the world currently, I am not inclined to agree with this.

There's always stuff to complain about, but what stands out to me is that this generation absolutely is the most complaining generation in history. I don't blame them. I blame the boomer and gen x parents that raised them to feel this way.

Our world is so much more connected than it used to be fifty years ago, meaning you can hear a lot more complaining just by the fact that the internet exists.

I do agree that the privilege enjoyed by previous generations have made it easy to complain when you compare how things were to how things are now. And if this generation is the "most complaining generation in history", that's because the world we live in has so many more things to (rightly) complain about.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This is the pessimist's gambit. "Sure, if you look at how things are right now compared to the past, they look ok. But the trends are bad. We can't sustain what we are doing. Therefore, we are doomed."

But this has always been true. It was true when Malthus made his predictions. What Malthus failed to see, and what modern pessimists fail to see, is that trends don't continue. We figure out how to do things better. As I said before, we can better feed 8 billion people today than we could 2 billion in the past.

"We figure out how to do things better [and therefore we'll find our way out of the current problems]" is extrapolating a trend. Just sayin'.

 

[stickygirl]

Not exactly on point but why the scaremongering about lower birth rates when we have 9billion people on the planet? Most of our world problems are being caused by overpopulation.

I’d echo the sentiments about young kids seeing how fucked up the world is. We live in a world controlled by a handful of old white men - how inspiring.

Every generation is grossed out by the older gens. Their parents did E and grandads did sex and alcohol. That leaves ?

 

[FrancesScott]

The old and the young have a chasm of incomprehension between them. As do the financially secure and those living paycheck to paycheck or via ever increasing credit card balances.

This thread very clearly identifies another chasm between what many men think is the female experience and actual reality. This one does seem - based on too little data to be robust, but enough to be highly suggestive - to line up with the old vs young divide.

 

[FrancesScott]

Privilege: noun - the act telling people who are hurting due to things you haven’t had the misfortune to experience that they should feel differently to how they do, based on how you feel.

Wisdom: noun - something older people think is proportional to age, but something older people’s views and opinions often suggest is instead inversely proportional to age.

 

[Britva415]

I strongly believe that anyone trying to write their own failures off to a simple cliche like that is just making excuses, maybe to themselves even.

This is how I feel about guys who say they're choosing singleness and celibacy because #PostMeToo they're risking getting canceled, fired and jailed for looking at a woman.

There are probably a very small and very naïve proportion of them who do in fact actually believe that. There is probably another very small and very douchey proportion who say it just for the lulz. But most of them say it without believing it, because it hurts less than saying "I fear rejection."

Now, there were always guys who feared rejection, so, this alone doesn't explain why in 2025 so many of them won't shoot their shot. What could be causing guys to fear rejection more than ever before?

 

[Britva415]

There are lots of factors that absolutely suck but it's not generational.

I think this is right.

Because it isn't just the 18-24 year olds. Unattached people of older generations also seem to be giving up on sex and relationships.

So maybe it's not generational but it does seem to be cultural, in 2025.

 

[Britva415]

That the planet is, and I quote, “fucking dying,” presumably because future generations will have spend 1-2% of total GDP growth between now and 2125 to mitigate the effects of climate change.

That's a really weird thing to presume.

I mean, I can tell that you presume it, but that is not at all what anyone else means when they say the planet is dying.

What everyone else means is that previous generations extracted significant percentages of gross global product growth while saddling future generations with ecosystem-killing externalizations.

To put it in economic terms.

 

[FrancesScott]

"We figure out how to do things better [and therefore we'll find our way out of the current problems]" is extrapolating a trend. Just sayin'.

It’s an interesting bet, right? Humans are notoriously bad at trends. We are evolutionarily conditioned to assume that what happened yesterday will happen today. And that’s normally right, except when it isn’t.

Argument: we haven’t run out of fossil fuels yet, so we never will. Though in this case, that should be good for the planet, if not necessarily Homo sapiens.

And it’s a poor argument to go straight to Malthus when anyone mentions anything about overpopulation. It’s like a knee-jerk reaction which absolves the person saying it from actually thinking about the issue. It’s like a Harry Potter spell.

 

[RetroFan]

Could you be more specific? The tenor of this thread suggests that you're right, but I'm so, so far away from that generation. I'd like to know more.

There are quite a few reasons. Culturally, we seem to have entered a black hole from 2020 onwards (although the early warning signs were there from the mid to late 2010s) and everything seems to be online now.

It makes for an uninteresting world today, younger people don't socialize and communicate the way they used to even a decade ago. People hooking up via dating apps or communicating online isn't interesting or sexy, and having people in the present day behaving like they did from years past creates a paradox. I've heard that young people today don't even like to talk on the phone, and that at times have had to go to training courses when they get jobs to be comfortable with this.

 

[iwatchus]

I've heard that young people today don't even like to talk on the phone, and that at times have had to go to training courses when they get jobs to be comfortable with this.

I will confirm that my students (and my son and his partner) dislike talking on the phone. Even I have gotten to dislike it when calling someone unknown. But I have heard enough of my students making routine calls: doctor office, DMV, etc, to be dbubious of your second half. Yes, some need professional phone etiquette training, but so did my high school classmates fifty some years ago who wanted to be receptionist, or something similar.

 

[RetroFan]

I will confirm that my students (and my son and his partner) dislike talking on the phone. Even I have gotten to dislike it when calling someone unknown. But I have heard enough of my students making routine calls: doctor office, DMV, etc, to be dbubious of your second half. Yes, some need professional phone etiquette training, but so did my high school classmates fifty some years ago who wanted to be receptionist, or something similar.

We had a young guy start with us who thought he should be allowed to listen to his music on his headphones while working all day - this in an accountancy office where we get phone calls all the time - rather than listen out for and take the calls he received. He didn't last very long, needless to say.

 

[iwatchus]

Most of my students take jobs as programmers or a similar technical role; they expect to be able to use headphones at work. And generally are allowed to.

Of course in one discussion class, they started a discussion about ADHD and spectrum. More than 3/4 of the class carried a diagnosis for one of them.