The "hookup generation" has been renamed the "meh-lennial" generation. At least when it comes to sex.
Despite popular dating apps like Tinder, new research says that millennials are not living up to their hookup generation stereotype. A study published Tuesday in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior found that millennials have better things to do than hit the sheets with a romantic partner.
No, this is not an Onion article. The scientific data seems to overturn the notion of a generation actively participating in casual sex.
In fact, millennials are twice as likely to be "sexually inactive" compared with people who were born in the 1960s (the tail end of the Boomers) and 70s (GenX'ers) when they were the same age. Only people born in the 1920s reported having less sex.
Combining the work of three American universities, the study analyzed data from the General Social Survey, that polls U.S. adults about their sex habits. The research found that younger millennials — born in the 1990s — admitting to having no sexual partners after the age of 18 has shot up to 15 percent, vs. 12 percent of young adults born in the 1970s or '80s. Just 6 percent of those born in the '60s said they had no sexual partners.
How can this be true? Is it because so many millennials still live with their parents? Or are they too busy texting, as the ladies of "The View" suggested Wednesday morning, to enjoy a quickie?
Researchers can only speculate. Their possible reasons include: more sex education and awareness of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV; easy access to pornography; and generational differences in definitions of what sex is and isn't — for example, oral sex vs. intercourse.
And yes, it turns out texting could be partly to blame. Some researchers attribute the higher level of sexual inactivity among millennials to an increasing use of personal technology.
But fans of sex need not worry. The world has over a billion millennials and a fair number are still having sex.
Aimee Blanchette • 612-673-1715
@aimeeblanchette
