One thing to note is that birth-control may decrease libido in some women. The science is a bit mixed though.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-sex/201902...

As for the male side of things, I'm not sure if there is a environmental culprit like birth-control.

Antidepressants and antianxiety medications decrease libido as well.

Depression and anxiety usually reduce libido.

Edit: Also an unhappy relationship often can lead to poor sex, depression, and anxiety.

Sounds like we need to address depression and anxiety with something other than drugs.

Shorter work weeks, universal healthcare, affordable housing, open borders, freedom to travel, less consumerism, more time for friends/family...

I thought countries that have most of those things seem to have as many problems with depression and anxiety?

And countries without those things perhaps don't?

Which are the correlations that actually matter?

nah... go look up quality of life ratings and you can see these countries do great.

I'm pretty sure that universal healthcare isn't compatible with open borders. Budgets aren't infinite.

Why do people assume open borders means freeloaders vs freedom?

As long as your country is offering something that 90% of Earth’s population lacks (access to high-quality free healthcare which is what people usually mean as “universal”) then, yes, you’re going to attract a lot of freeloaders.

No, no you won't. You will attract people who are committed to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I wish I could believe this. Seems more like wishful thinking along the lines of America’s hubris that it could “bring democracy” to the Middle East.

There’s nothing magic about soil. You need to give time for waves of immigrants to integrate, or it leads to backlash and horrible people like Trump getting elected.

Open borders = unaffordable housing, no universal borders, less time for friends and family

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things does not belong

What does open borders have to do with the other things?

> open borders

No thanks. Feel free to go conduct extreme social experiments with your own life, not mine.

I wouldn’t call it extreme, as it has been done before. In the US, for example, borders were completely open for the first hundred years until anti-Chinese racism led to the passage of the Page Act in 1875.

Or maybe drugs that lead to insight instead of away from it.

Also, you need to address birth control with something other than drugs.

Lack of sex causes depression and anxiety. It's a vicious circle.

Depression and anxiety even more so, modern work-life balance and social media too...

Exposure to phthalates reduces testosterone in both men and women, and thus lowers sex drive. Phthalates are widely used chemicals, primarily for softening plastic.

https://news.umich.edu/reduced-testosterone-tied-to-chemical...

That's not the only cause. Increased obesity levels also play a role. Probably other factors.

Widely and freely available HD porn too. It’s easier than ever for people to use it as a substitute, and it reduces the drive to seduce. It contributes to a downward spiral of satisficing.

Edit: Getting downvotes from folks in denial. I’m not making this stuff up, college students rarely used to have ED, now porn-induced ED is quite common. Many such cases! [0]

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5039517/

From review you linked. Clearly this means research is conflicted on this topic.

Viewing Sexual Stimuli Associated with Greater Sexual Responsiveness, Not Erectile Dysfunction https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26185674

Is Pornography Use Associated with Sexual Difficulties and Dysfunctions among Younger Heterosexual Men https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25816904/

I thought porn was supposed to make people into sexual deviants, which is it?

It reduces the novelty of real sex and thus the arousal for it. Lots of studies on this.

A common side effect of porn addiction is that the addict requires more and more extreme situations and stimulus in order to get aroused. So I would say that is sort of turning one into a sexual deviant.

Would love to see any sort of actual studies on this, because I'm fairly confident it's false.

The argument at face value is a slippery slope, like "sugar triggers dopamine response in the brain in similar areas as cocaine, so any exposure to sugar eventually leads to someone consuming sugar at all times"

I think it's much more likely that people, in general, imprint sexual preferences around the time that they are becoming sexual in their teens, and that doesn't change much as they age.

Religion in the US tends to focus on "any exposure to porn makes you an addict," which is why I am assuming this is what you're trying to imply. If you want to play a semantics game "porn addiction is defined as" then I'd argue that the same people are -true- porn addicts at the same rate that people are -true- sugar addicts. So, not saying they don't exist, but are a significantly lower number of the population than US religions would have you believe.

Your opinion seems to come from the same school of thought that claimed cannabis consumption would surely lead to harder and harder drugs.

In fact, I have experienced the opposite: I do not enjoy any kind of "ugly", much less "extreme" porn. It turns me off.

The simplest kind for me, missionary position, or a girl alone, and that's it.

I have a dead post in this thread for basically the same thing, very odd reaction I don't understand.

> it reduces the drive to seduce

Are you suggesting that the solution to dead bedrooms is increasing "drive to seduce" of the ones who complain?

I thought that many of them already have high drive that their partners don't reciprocate.

Stress is higher across the board as the middle class is wrung out of the economy and the gilded age begins again.

Even if it isn't fight-or-flight stress inducement, sheer business and exhaustion are also undeniably up.

All one has to do is look at the laundry list of economic differences (housing, health care, education, salary, etc) between the current generations and the boomers.

It was a trend that began in my mid 20s as well. I have also noticed women are more inclined to voice frustrations than my male friends. I guess I became more approachable after proposing to my now-wife (and the things I hear are G-rated compared to the things I hear secondhand from my wife)

Yep same here (mid 20s-30s). I guess it shouldn't really be too surprising; young people often don't know what they really need and/or are capable of providing before diving headlong into an exclusive relationship.