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by jawns 1933 days ago
The study talks about how more young people are residing with their parents because of economic difficulty, but I'm not sure that's necessarily a major factor in the decline. Many people become sexually active before they move out of their parents' houses, and although it might be more challenging to find a private space, where there's a will, there's a way. Teenagers have been sneaking around to fool around for generations, and I don't think teenagers and young people of today are any less adept at finding a way to shack up if they're sufficiently determined.

So I think the focus is about what forces were not present in previous generations, and the Internet is certainly the most conspicuous factor. I'm not saying it's the decisive factor, but I'm not surprised it's a prime culprit.
2 comments
wittyreference 1933 days ago
The real earning power of minimum wage (aka, the standard teenage job) has declined by, what, 70% since the 70s? If it's more expensive, in real terms, to have a car, to rent a hotel room, to go out, then yes, it's going to be more difficult to get laid.
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the_af 1933 days ago
You can have sex while living with your parents, no car or hotel rooms needed. Not having money to go out might be a problem to meet people, true.

Note that in many countries, teenagers owning cars (and related activities) are not as prevalent as in the US. When I was a teenager, almost nobody I knew owned a car, and we all used public transportation, so there was no (dating) car culture around this.

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PurpleFoxy 1933 days ago
There is a difference between “you can” and “you will bother to when there are plenty of easier and equally enjoyable things to do.”
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the_af 1933 days ago
I know I did bother. Sex is very interesting when you're a teenager.

Like I said, other countries don't have the same car-centric culture of the US. We've been managing to successfully have sex -- and find sex interesting -- without such an early access to cars!

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watwut 1933 days ago
The argument is not that it is impossible to have sex when you live with parents. It is that you are less likely to have casual sex if you live with them.

Where you would have had it, if you lived alone, you wont bother overcoming the "more challenging to find a private space" situation.

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