@nenjin: The preponderence of sites like Tinder (which is what kicked off this whole sadsack discussion, iirc) begs to differ. I mean, yeah, those sites are supposed to reduce the amount of effort and socialization needed but it still takes effort. And there's still millions upon millions of people making that effort.
Again, not all millenials. Plenty of people in my cohort who did the whole family, kids, suit and tie job thing. I went to college, socialized. I just didn't prioritize the same things they did. Have never wanted kids. Never even really wanted to own a house.
And there are plenty of brodudes who play CoD4 for a few hours before they hit the bar looking for bitches. So not even enjoying video games is an absolute metric. It's more what do you prioritize and what are you willing to invest your time in. Tinder is a good example. It takes slightly more effort than rubbing one out, and that effort is actual human contact for the intention of intimacy.
Maybe that's partially what it boils down to, is real intimacy. People are happy to have sex, in whatever form be that in front of a computer screen using Chaturbate, Tinder where you don't actually want to know the other person, or a drunken "wanna bang" bar hook up. But these things aren't real, lasting intimacy. And maybe that's what people are actually shying away from. Reserving that 40% of themselves that they're not going to share with someone. Either out of shame, apathy, fear or whatever. I know for me that my ideal person is one who understands escapism without judging it.
Like, if that's the main thing keeping young people from having sex, then those abstinence-only classes are REALLY working.
Birth control doesn't always work though. Men get lazy, condoms break, women can change their mind about birth control without telling their partner....I'd like to think millenials (generally speaking) have a sense of responsibility about childbirth. They don't want kids they aren't ready to have, they don't want the responsibility for a life if they aren't sure they're totally in control of their's, and that may delay or deny the mid-life desire to raise a family.