The party scene in Gene Stupnitsky’s 2023 coming-of-age sex comedy No Hard Feelings sums it up perfectly. Jennifer Lawrence plays 32-year-old Maddie, hired to seduce Percy, a college-bound dweeb. She crashes a house party in search of Percy, bursting into bedrooms only to find his Gen Z peers caught in the throes of … passionately doomscrolling on their phones. Exasperated by the sight, Maddie blurts: “Doesn’t anyone f**k anymore?” 

Turns out, they kind of don’t. Today’s generation of young adults is ditching sex like never before. Fewer hook-ups are happening. The so-called “sex recession” has hit and no one’s coming to fix it. 

In 2024, the dating app Feeld and a fellow from the Kinsey Institute released The State of Dating Report, a study that surveyed more than 3,000 Feeld members between the ages of 18-75 from 71 countries. The findings were striking: Nearly half of Gen Z respondents surveyed were single compared to one-fifth of older generations. Thirty-seven percent of Gen Zers reported not having any sex in the last month—matching the sexual frequency of surveyed Boomers—and they were twice as likely to say they longed for monogamy than older generations. Feeld’s reputation as a kink and hookup app makes these discoveries even more surprising. 

And this trend isn’t just playing out in the dating apps. Amanda Morgan, a professor-in-residence who teaches Education for Sexuality at UNLV’s School of Public Health, has witnessed the shift firsthand among her students. 

“A lot of my students are from Vegas, and so they’ve grown up with all the billboards and all the stripper mobiles and all of that,” Morgan says. “There is this push back where they’re almost rebelling against a very open sexual culture by deciding that they don’t want to have sex until they get married, or that they don’t want to have sex until they feel respected or safe.” 

Morgan says she feels a lot of empathy for her students, because the lack of sex isn’t the problem—it’s a symptom of something larger. Here’s a look at what Gen Z is up against when it comes to sex, intimacy and establishing real connections. 

Sex? In This Economy?

Sex sells, but it also doesn’t come cheap. Young adults are finding that financial pressures are hindering hookups. 

“We’re now at the point where it’s, ‘good luck buying a house.’ Rent is now $2,000 for maybe a two-bedroom, crappy apartment,” Morgan says. “So we have a lot of younger folks who are living with their family longer, or having to live with roommates. As a result of that, it’s hard to find alone time.” 

Meeting people over drinks also costs money. But there’s an upside to Gen Z’s tight wallets and lack of interest in alcohol: Less drinking means fewer dangerous hookups under the influence. 

“I think it’s great that we are moving away from this alcohol-driven socialization and coming into places where people are wanting to relate in sober ways,” Morgan says. “I see more people who are enjoying board games. People who are enjoying going to these daytime raves, or hiking or going to yoga and meeting people that way.” 

Post-COVID Anxiety

A 2023 report by the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that young adults (ages 18-25) had twice the rate of anxiety and depression of teens. Morgan attributes much of thatto COVID isolation. In recent years, she’s witnessed a breakdown in communication as social anxiety runs rampant among her students. Social skills have completely “atrophied,” she says, along with any chance of physical intimacy. 

“Good sex requires good communication, and I think that our lack of communication skills with each other is making it so people are having less, or never have had good sex,” Morgan says. 

Those wrestling with anxiety and depression face an uphill battle because mental illness, and even prescribed medication for it, can tank libido. And the consequences of that extend beyond the bedroom. Researchers have talked at length about the “epidemic of loneliness,” an outbreak of isolation that’s literally “more dangerous for you than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day,” Morgan says. 

“But the research that’s coming out is finding that it’s not just older folks, it’s the younger folks that are lonely as hell,” she continues. “They’re seeking connection, but they’re doing it through online forums and video games, where they can put on a headset and they can connect with someone on the other side of the world.” 

Social Media Meltdown

Gen Z was the first generation to be fully raised on smartphones. And while access to information is faster than ever, it has created problems. Easy access to pornography means young people are learning about sex from sources that don’t reflect reality. 

“We don’t have a lot of good systems set up to provide comprehensive sex education and spaces where students can actually ask questions about their own health and their own bodies, so they’re learning from porn, and they’re learning from TikTok,” Morgan says. 

Social media adds to that pressure by playing on insecurities and distorting self-worth.

“There’s the pressure to be a sexual being, because sexy is hot in that Instagram life,” Morgan says. “People are comparing themselves to other people, even though those people are not actually showing their true selves. When we have a culture that has not encouraged people to learn how to love themselves and learn how to validate their own wants and needs and feelings, this is where we end up.” 

Solution

So where does Gen Z go from here? The first step is to accept that some people just don’t want to have sex. Some people abstain for religious reasons, others due to cultural shifts. “But some of them are just like, ‘I don’t have time for this,’” Morgan says. 

For those interested in dating, she suggests putting yourself in situations where you can meet people and grow your social capital. Yoga, salsa dancing, trivia nights ... the options are endless, and there’s bound to be something that fits a busy schedule. 

She also recommends making a list of what you want in a partner, so if you come across them, you’ll know if they’re a good match. 

“I think that people need to do some of their own work on the inside to ask themselves what kind of partners they want. What kind of person is going to make you put your phone down and pay attention to them?”

Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!