Young Americans are having sex less often, and some of the relationships they do have are being warped by what they see online.
"A lot of young people I talked to were pretty concerned about what the internet had done to their lives," says Carter Sherman, who covers reproductive health for the Guardian. She interviewed more than 100 young adults for her book, The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future.
Sherman says many of them told her that exposure to pornography had complicated their sex lives.
"This was something that really surprised me, " says Sherman.
She says some told her porn had blurred the lines between what might be considered typical sex and rough sex — like hitting and choking.
"They felt that they were just expected to do that, even if this was something that they were not personally all that interested in. And moreover, they were expected to do this in such a way that they were oftentimes not asked for consent."
One of the people interviewed for the book, 28 year-old Davante Jennings told NPR that growing up with the internet gave him unrealistic expectations of what sex was really like.
"People's bodies are people's bodies," Jennings says, "Everyone isn't, you know, perfectly sculpted out… sexual experiences are a little more awkward starting out."
Jennings says most of what's depicted in porn won't fly in the real world. For instance, foreplay is often downplayed in pornography. He learned how important it was, and that different partners like different things.
"I think it was just a lot of trial and error. Like, the best teacher is life."
In recent years, several studies by organizations with a range of political leanings have found that a growing number of young people are not having sex at all.
Debbie Herbenick is a professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health, and researches the impact of the internet on the relationships of young people. She says exposure to more violent sexual images at younger ages is part of the problem.
"They're getting the message that sex is harmful and rough, and so some portion … say this stuff feels awful to me, I don't want to do it."
Sherman also found this feeling among the young people she interviewed, including one woman who said she was interested in sex, but worried that the men she might meet would reflect the misogyny she'd see in some online communities.
"That, frankly, was really saddening to me," says Sherman, "because it felt like she had to close off a part of her life, a part of the potential exploration out of fear."
Sherman says the internet has been helpful for some young people's romantic lives: it's easier for them to find answers to sensitive questions they don't want to ask their parents or teachers. It's also benefits those who might otherwise struggle to find community.
"I do think for young LGBTQ people, the internet has been revolutionary," she says, "and making them feel accepted and wanted and like there are other people out there like them."
But overall, Sherman thinks Americans should be more critical of what they see online.
"I don't know that we can get rid of phones or we can decrease internet use in a meaningful way, she says. "I'm more interested in understanding what it has done and how we can mitigate those side effects, or at least make people aware of those side effects, because it just feels like we've accepted social media and phones and the internet in our lives without having a lot of questions or regulation around these issues."
This story was edited by Megan Pratz.
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