Young men are giving up on sex to play video games, study finds

According to studies the proportion who say they have not had a non-romantic sexual encounter in the past year has risen from 11.7 per cent to 15.2 per cent. For men aged 18 to 24, it rose from 18.9 per cent to 30.9 per cent

Credit: Ina FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Image

Young men are giving up sex to play video games, a study has found. The US-based research found that computer gaming by men in their early 20s explained a quarter of the decline in their propensity to have casual sex.

The size of the decline was on a par with the current young generation’s growing distaste for drinking as an explanation as to why casual sex is becoming less common among people in their 20s, according to the study of 2,000 young men and women aged 20 to 24. 

The researchers from the State University of New York and Rutgers University used regressive analysis to try to understand why today’s youngsters are spurning casual sex.

According to studies the proportion who say they have not had a non-romantic sexual encounter in the past year has risen from 11.7 per cent to 15.2 per cent. For men aged 18 to 24, it rose from 18.9 per cent to 30.9 per cent.

For women, the biggest factor explaining the decline in their casual sex lives was drinking, which accounted for a quarter of the drop. According to the researchers, no other factor stood out or was statistically significant.

For the men, however, of the key aspects of their lives which appeared to be having an effect, the largest was drinking followed by gaming.

Ten per cent was accounted for by the fact that they were still living with their parents.

The researchers, however, found there was "no evidence that trends in young adults’ economic circumstances, internet use, or television watching explain the recent decline in casual sexual activity". 

The reasons for the decline has been exercising academics.

Prof Simon Forrest, of the Institute for Health and Society at Newcastle University, said many young people tended to form long-term partnerships later in life, with people not settling down until their 30s.

"This is something that’s definitely changed a lot in the last 50 years," he said. 

Young people also remaining dependent on their families, both financially and in terms of living at home, might be a factor.

"I think this clearly has an impact on the kinds of relationships young people form because that lack of independence can be quite important," he said.

He also pointed to what he calls the ‘pornographisation’ of society, in which the greater access to explicit pornography online might be affecting sexual relationships.

For example, young people might be concerned about the objectifaction of their bodies, about increasing negative attitudes towards women, and they might even be having fewer sexual encounters because they’re spending more time with pornography.