Hacker News Reader

Comment by seppel | Hacker News Reader

This article awkwardly dances around reasons why young men have less sex.

First it is "social media and electronic gaming", then the reasons "may also include stress of juggling work and intimate relationships, as well as the prevalence of other forms of solo entertainment."

But then, they notice that "[s]exual activity was largely unchanged among unmarried women, along with no notable decline among gay men, researchers reported." So everything said before seems kind of void anyway.

Obviously, the reasons must lie somewhere else. However, this is not explicitly stated.

Now they continue with huge jump: From sexual activities to relationships: "Given a preference for men of higher socioeconomic status and the larger number of college-educated women than men, some young men may find it difficult to form heterosexual relationships"

Well, maybe. But how does that connect to the first part?

View on HN

The reader is left draw their own conclusions, which isn't hard for the average person to do. The alternative of laying it out explicitly will invariably draw lots of blow back, which is good for neither careers nor interpersonal relationships if your name is attached to it.

The mainstream thought/media is probably 5-10 years behind certain spheres of thought on the web, and it's hilarious.

Not sure if this is what you meant, but I'd correct it to "what is allowed to be said" is probably 5-10 years behind certain spheres of thought. Reuters certainly wouldn't want to alienate readers with something controversial - hence the lack of strong analysis.

Yeah good point. I actually use Reuters as my go-to for that reason, and the ability to get what matters quick and efficiently.

Well, I guess they theorize that in stable relationships, men are more likely to have sex. If forming relationships gets more difficult, the majority of men have less sex. I'm not sure if the argument is actually valid but from a historical perspective I can understand the thought process.

If men have more sex in stable relationships, and for women it does not matter, then with whom do the women sleep with?

The argument I typically see (and no, I don't agree with it) is that 80% of the women are sleeping with 20% of the men.

So in the broadest sense, the 5th chart on this financial times page [0], is typically explained with this chart [1]

[0] https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/12/02/1575302514000/-thank-... [1] https://i.4pcdn.org/pol/1578799051033.png

From my personal anecdotal experience, there is a large grain of truth in that "chart". Women are the primary decision makers of any sexual activity, they have a much higher bar than (most) men on sexual desirability and amongst those who don't care about any relationships - a large number choose the same men.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com