Study: Americans Having Less Sex; Video Streaming May Be to Blame

A new study finds that American adults are having less sex now than nearly a decade ago, and researchers suggest technology may be to blame.

Fortune reports that a new study published in Archives of Sexual Behavior shows that American adults are having less sex in the early 2010s than they did in the 1990s at a rate of approximately nine fewer times a year. These figures appear to stay the same across adults regardless of gender, age, race, or marital status.

However, despite this decline, adults are still likely to have more sex if they’re in a relationship than if they’re not. Jean Twenge, one of the study’s researchers, said, “Tinder supposedly makes it easier to have sex on tap, but it’s pretty well established that people with a steady partner tend to have sex more often.”

The decline outlined in the report didn’t start until 2008, leading researchers to a possible cause: entertainment on demand. “Entertainment is more entertaining now, it’s more on demand — you can access it anytime you want,” Twenge stated. “DVRs became more common right around that time, too.” The general idea is that Americans are too distracted by their technology and entertainment to bother having sex.

“Think about what’s happened over the last 10 years,” said Twenge, noting that just a few short years ago Americans were living without social media and streaming entertainment.