While dating apps would have you believe that all people think about is finding love, the truth is, that seems to only apply to adults. A new book suggests that dating isn’t all that important to young people, and social media could be to blame.
Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, just published the book “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood–and What That Means for the Rest of Us,” and in it she suggests that folks born between 1995 and 2012, the so-called “i-Generation,” are spending more time socializing with folks online than they actualy are in person, and they are less interested in actually dating.
Prof Twenge’s research looked at surveys taken from 11 million young people, as well as in depth interviews, and she discovered that only 56% of 14 to 18-year-olds went out on dates in 2015. While that number may not seem that low, it is in comparison to Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, which were around 85%.
But that’s not all. Sexual activity has also decreased about 40% amongst teens since 1991. Nowadays, the average teenager will have had sex for the first time by 17, while for those in Generation X the age was 16.
Source: The Telegraph