There's a silent recession going on... of sex!
In contrast to most survey results, I kind of believe this one (if not the exact levels, then the direction). There's no social-desirability-bias to exaggerate how little sex you're having:
In 2024 one in five seniors at Harvard revealed to the Crimson, a student newspaper, that they had never had sex. This is not unusual. Sexual activity among college-age Americans has dropped by nearly half in the past 20 years, part of a broader decline in sexual activity that some journalists have dubbed a “sex recession”
Also, academic degrees are bad for libido...?
etween 2002 and 2023, 25- to 35-year-olds with a bachelor’s degree had sex 11% less often than the average adult; those with a graduate degree had sex 13% less frequently
Inequality holds up, even after controlling for age/alcohol/employment/health/marraige etc. Degree = LESS sex.
Little research has been done to answer conclusively why educated Americans would be having less frequent fun in the bedroom. The most popular theories for why people are having less sex in general, from technological distractions to young adults delaying moving out of their parents’ house, fail to explain the inactivity among university graduates specifically. Young people are marrying later and less often, and there is no doubt that this is leading to less lovemaking (married couples do it around twice as often as single people). But those with degrees marry at higher rates than those without; their marriages last longer, too.
...and finally, a jab at the bookworms and skills (=delaying gratification) that make them successful professionally or academically:
Those skilled at spreadsheets may still have a lot to learn in the bed sheets.
archive: https://archive.md/JEOJJ
Seems like a huge confluence of modern factors:
Don’t forget dating inflation. Girls get bombarded with attention thus try to constantly date up.
This is how you get average looking fat women thinking they deserve a “high value” man.
A day don’t go by where I don’t see fat unattractive people around here in the states.
When I went to Mexico I couldn’t believe how beautiful the women were down there.
I also certainly believe that pornography is damaging minds, and people who have been married for years still consume pornography occasionally.
Most of my points apply to married people too
strange that none of those pretty obvious factors were in the article?
Guess I'll settle for the hypergamy observation that was there. Can't expect too much from our future employees
I guess all of these explanations are some kind of taboo subject
help. Is the sex frequency chart in microhertz or nanohertz?
Megahertz
What if... study is better than sex?
infidel!
thou doth protesteth too much, methinks
80 IQ's will continue to outbreed
Nobody wants to talk about it.
But it’s happening everywhere.
A silent recession.
Not of money.
Of sex.
We spent the last decade optimizing:
But our love lives?
On airplane mode.
Harvard seniors.
20% never had sex.
These are the “smartest” kids in the room.
Top scores.
Top internships.
Bottom libido.
Is that success?
Or a weird glitch in the system?
The degree data is wild:
More education.
More earning.
Less intimacy.
We optimized life like a spreadsheet.
And then wonder why the “cells” don’t connect.
I see it with friends all the time.
Crushing it at work.
Crushed at home.
Back-to-back Zoom calls.
End the day exhausted.
Phone in bed.
Scroll. Sleep. Repeat.
You can’t build chemistry
on 4 hours of sleep
and 19 open tabs.
The usual explanations?
They explain some of it.
But not why the most “successful” on paper
are often the least connected in bed.
Here’s my take:
We trained an entire generation to be:
But not:
We know how to optimize pipelines.
Not eye contact.
We can cold-email a stranger.
But can’t warm-text someone we like.
Think about it:
We reward delayed gratification nonstop.
Study now.
Party later.
Work now.
Love later.
Grind now.
Live later.
Then one day you look up and realize:
Later never got scheduled on the calendar.
I’ve felt this in my own life.
Times where my:
But my relationships?
Stalled.
I’d tell myself:
“I’ll focus on dating once this launch is done.”
Then another project.
Another quarter.
Another excuse.
Productivity was my shield.
Work was my hiding place.
Here’s the scary part:
The same skills that help you win at school and work…
…can make you lose at intimacy.
Because intimacy is messy.
You can’t “A/B test” your way into chemistry.
You can’t spreadsheet your way into desire.
You can’t schedule real connection
into a 15‑minute time block between calls.
And the inequality thing?
That’s the plot twist.
Even when you control for:
The degree still = less sex.
Education should expand life.
But for many, it’s narrowing it.
Lots of knowledge.
Little embodiment.
Big brain.
Low bandwidth for connection.
So what do you do?
You treat sex and intimacy
like a real part of your life.
Not an optional “nice to have” after you “make it.”
You:
Because anytime you invest in real intimacy, chances are you’ll:
Those skilled at spreadsheets?
Yeah.
They might have a lot to learn in the bedsheets.
But that’s the good news.
It’s a skill set.
And skills can be learned.
Just don’t wait until your next promotion
to start practicing.