Because instead of getting down and dirty, they spend the last half hour before bed staring at their phone screens?

We joke, but a new study published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour says many young adults are choosing not to have sex.

Folks born in the 80s and 90s are now twice as likely to be virgins when compared to those born in the 60s and 70s (called GenXers), with this below from TIME:

…they analyzed [sic] data from a nationally representative group of 26,707 adults, focusing on GenX’ers, Millennials and the generation after them, which some people call iGen. Fifteen percent of young adults ages 20-24 who were born in the 1990s said they had no sex partners since age 18, while just 6% of GenX’ers admitted the same when recalling the romps of their early twenties.

Why this dramatic drop? Maybe because no one likes ‘adulting’ any longer:

“There’s been a general pattern over the last few generations for people to become adults or cross adult milestones later: things like getting married, having a child, settling into a stable career, buying a house,” she says. An extended adolescence used to mean that people were starting to have sex but putting off marriage and kids. “Now, it seems Millennials and iGen are putting off everything—including sex,”[study author Jean Twenge] said.

Well, you can’t exactly catch all the Pokemon and have a flourishing sex life. To drive that point home:

It could be, too, that young adults are increasingly living on their phones. “If you’re on your phone communicating with people more often, and not seeing your peers in person as much, that could lead to less sex,” Twenge says. And while phones may be helping some people get laid, dating apps like Tinder likely leave out a whole segment of the population—perhaps the one not having sex. “Maybe if someone who isn’t physically attractive meets someone in a bar, they can charm the other person with their engaging personality and humor,” Twenge explains. “On Tinder, it’s a picture.”

A picture from four years ago, with the most favourable filter and taken from just the right angle.

I guess it all boils down to the fact that kids are staying that way for longer – Peter Panning it, if you will. Or maybe it’s just time to spice things up a little, with a helping hand from the pros over at Désir Online.

It never hurts to come prepared.

[source:time]