Gen Z Doesn’t Want to See Sex in TV and Movies, Study Finds
Amid an epidemic of loneliness and isolation, while looking for more meaningful ways to connect, young people today are increasingly eschewing romance and sex plotlines in television and film, a new study has found.
The second annual “Teens & Screens” survey, which was conducted by the UCLA Psychology Department’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS), was designed to examine adolescents’ perspectives of the entertainment and social media content they consume. In total, 1,500 young people ages 10 to 24 were asked what topics they wished to see, as well as which media spaces felt more authentic to them and why.
Supported by the collection of Funders for Adolescent Science Translation, respondents were likewise chosen to reflect the U.S. Census in terms of race and gender.
The report found that 44.3 percent of adolescents felt that romance in media is overused, while 47.5 percent said that sex isn’t needed for the plot of most TV shows and movies. Likewise, 51.5 percent of adolescents expressed a desire for more content centered around friendships and platonic relationships and 39 percent said that they would like to see more aromantic and asexual characters.
Related: A New Study Reveals the Secret to a Better Sex Life
Many younger people are choosing to be single in lieu of romantic partnerships, and would like to see these preferences reflected in their media, the study found.
“I’m noticing that more and more people in my circle are deliberately choosing to be single,” said 56 percent of respondents, drawing the conclusion that “being single isn’t something to fix, [but] its own happy ending.” Furthermore, 44 percent of Gen Zers say that they would rather clean the toilet than go on another online date.
Stephanie Rivas-Lara, youth engagement manager at CSS and first author of the study, told Deadline that as a member of Gen Z herself, she wasn’t surprised by some of what they study uncovered.
“There has been a wide-ranging discourse among young people about the meaning of community in the aftermath of COVID-19 and the isolation that came with it,” Rivas-Lara explained. “Adolescents are looking to media as a ‘third place’ where they can connect and have a sense of belonging—and with frightening headlines about climate change, pandemics and global destabilization, it makes sense they are gravitating towards what’s most familiar in those spaces.”
“While it’s true that adolescents want less sex on TV and in movies, what the survey is really saying is that they want more and different kinds of relationships reflected in the media they watch,” said Yalda T. Uhls, founder and director of CSS and adjunct professor in UCLA’s psychology department, who co-authored the study.
“We know that young people are suffering an epidemic of loneliness and they’re seeking modeling in the art they consume,” Uhls continued. “While some storytellers use sex and romance as a shortcut to character connection, it’s important for Hollywood to recognize that adolescents want stories that reflect the full spectrum of relationships.”
She added that other recent studies have shown that young people are also having less sex than their parents did at their age.
Research on the perception of social relationships in Netflix’s Wednesday and Heartstopper inspired some of the questions asked on this survey. Barbie, the breakout hit of the summer, was also unsurprisingly popular among young people, with one 10-year-old girl expressing: “Barbie the movie and girl feels authentic to me. I want to be just like her.”
Take note, film and TV studios and streamers.
