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Christina Ariadne's avatar

This made me laugh out loud, although it really shouldn’t have. My favorite unf*able man move, is when guys show up at church and expect that by announcing they believe in Jesus some woman will want to have their children 🤔🤷🏻‍♀️

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Kenny H's avatar

I completely agree that young people are hooking up less at least partially because of easy access to internet pornography. It's not internet pornography it's the fact that it's extremely easy to access all the time. Also certain types of internet pornography add the also often toxic parasocial relationships that replace actual relationships.

With that being said I think it goes beyond all this. It's difficult and awkward for a lot of people to find a partner. Back in the late 1990s when I was a teenager there were not as many instant distractions and there was more bordum eventually one would get so desperate they would have to do something like strike up a conversation with a girl your age or even ask someone out on a date. People also hung out in person with other bored young people and those young people knew other young people end you would hear through the grape vine that some girl "likes you" which would lead to you "talking" with this said girl which would the lead to "hanging out" which would then lead to a relationship or sex.

Since social relationships are less robust this type of "I heard it through the grapevine" dating is a thing of the past. Instead younger people are using dating apps which gives the illusion of "so many options"

The fact is that many, many people when I was young "settled" for someone just because they were desperate and had no other options. People now instead of going that route end up distracting themselves with video games TV or porn all of which are more customizable and easier to access. This filling the void more.

The real culprit which porn is part of is the fact that people are not longer bored and can fill any void they have in their life with any number of unhealthy coping mechanisms. This has warped people's attitudes. On top of that the constant comparisons that social media inflicts and the rotten ideas it spreads mean people even men have higher standards for partners even as people both men and women honestly put less effort into their appearance.

Young men do get the short end of the stick in dating apps as well but this is also self inflicted. Many men want to "get laid" they swipe on every girl on their dating app and go for a "quantity over quality" approach. There are more men on dating apps as well. Many men do not want to actually have a long term relationship with the women they swipe on, they will use every manipulative tactic in the book just to have sex. On top of that far more men are on these apps. Women are far more picky(why wouldn't you be if there were so many dishonest men around?) and have a numerical advantage. They can have their pick if they just want to have sex. If they want a relationship they are in a totally vulnerable position of permanent distrust and skepticism for good reason. However this dynamic leads to a very few select group of men getting a lot of attention and most men being ignored because the more picky women gravitate towards the same men. This situation is bad for most men and most women.

So that's the terrible dating scene as I, a married for 14 years guy sees it.

People not having as many kids is mostly due to smart decisions and following the advice of our parents. "Don't have kids until you can afford them" means for most "responsible" people that you establish a career and are financially sound before you have kids (not me) this leads to more kids happening for people in their 30s. If you don't start a family until your 30s you are much more likely to have just one or two kids. This is the primary reason birth rates are down. People are more responsible. People also have longer prolonged adolescence through their 20s often times. This is combination of different cultural expectations and economic reality.

People are still having kids just far fewer of them. That's not necessarily bad as more resources can be put into these fewer kids and less families are in poverty.

Millennials and Gen Z were told "don't have kids until you can afford them" now some people are freaking out because people are actually following that advice.

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