{"id":40758,"date":"2024-10-29T08:28:36","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T12:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=40758"},"modified":"2024-10-29T08:28:36","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T12:28:36","slug":"study-shows-teens-young-adults-want-less-sex-and-more-friendship-in-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/10\/study-shows-teens-young-adults-want-less-sex-and-more-friendship-in-media.html","title":{"rendered":"Study Shows Teens, Young Adults Want Less Sex and More Friendship in Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_40755\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40755\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/10\/teens-friendship-media_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-40755\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/10\/teens-friendship-media_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40755\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scholarsandstorytellers.com\/teens-screens-24\">study<\/a> is revealing that teens and young adults are less interested with sex in their media and want more friendships and platonic relationships. The \u201cTeens and Screens\u201d study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles\u2019 Center for Scholars &amp; Storytellers (CSS) interviewed 1,644 adolescents aged 10-24 about their preferences for various types of media, including television, video games, social media, and movies. The study found that by 13, 68 percent were already using social media. By 16, that number was up to 90 percent. Just five percent didn\u2019t use social media at all.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding content, 62 percent of those questioned (14 and over) stated that sexual content is an unnecessary plot device, with 64 percent stating they\u2019d rather TV shows and movies focus more on platonic relationships, highlighting the growing trend for a preference over \u201cnomance\u201d storylines over romance. Last year, 52 percent stated they wanted more platonic storylines. Movies were the top choice for young people as a form of entertainment, beating out concerts and sports activities.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to what type of shows and movies adolescents preferred to watch, fantasy continues to grow in popularity, with 36percent preferring the genre, growing 56percent from last year. Fantasy has continued to see a surge in media, with <em>Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power <\/em>staying away from the sexuality of <em>House of the Dragon <\/em>and maintaining a TV-14 rating, and the PG-13 rated movie <em>Damsel <\/em>featuring Millie Bobby Brown being anything but a damsel in distress. <em>Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim <\/em>is set to release this December with a PG-13 rating as well, and appears to feature the main character, Hera, saying no to an arranged marriage.<\/p>\n<p>Adolescents also showed a preference for stories that focused on relatable personal issues (24 percent) and preferred storylines with a hopeful content where characters beat the odds. Yalda T. Uhls, founder and executive director of CSS, stated the COVID-19 pandemic could have a lot to do with younger people seeking out more escapist worlds and hopeful messaging. \u201cHaving been exposed to huge stressors during formative years like COVID-19 and 24-hour news cycles detailing incidents of mass shootings, divisive politics and war, young people are overwhelmingly experiencing crisis fatigue. This generation cares deeply about many social issues, but they also need a break mentally,\u201d said Uhls. \u201cIt makes sense that we see many of them looking to the media for fantasy and stories with messages of hope to get relief from the many challenges that come with the reality of being a young person today.\u201d She is hopeful that the study will help Hollywood to shift the types of storylines it develops for younger audiences. \u201cThe problem is often that Hollywood storytellers use their own memories of their teenage years or what their children in Los Angeles are doing, and that does not remotely represent what young people really want.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study is revealing that teens and young adults are less interested with sex in their media and want more friendships and platonic relationships. The \u201cTeens and Screens\u201d study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles\u2019 Center for Scholars &amp; Storytellers (CSS) interviewed 1,644 adolescents aged 10-24 about their preferences for various types&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":40755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-trends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Study Shows Teens, Young Adults Want Less Sex and More Friendship in Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/10\/study-shows-teens-young-adults-want-less-sex-and-more-friendship-in-media.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Study Shows Teens, Young Adults Want Less Sex and More Friendship in Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new study is revealing that teens and young adults are less interested with sex in their media and want more friendships and platonic relationships. The \u201cTeens and Screens\u201d study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles\u2019 Center for Scholars &amp; Storytellers (CSS) interviewed 1,644 adolescents aged 10-24 about their preferences for various types&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/10\/study-shows-teens-young-adults-want-less-sex-and-more-friendship-in-media.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-29T12:28:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/10\/teens-friendship-media_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Study Shows Teens, Young Adults Want Less Sex and More Friendship in Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/10\/study-shows-teens-young-adults-want-less-sex-and-more-friendship-in-media.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Study Shows Teens, Young Adults Want Less Sex and More Friendship in Media","og_description":"A new study is revealing that teens and young adults are less interested with sex in their media and want more friendships and platonic relationships. The \u201cTeens and Screens\u201d study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles\u2019 Center for Scholars &amp; Storytellers (CSS) interviewed 1,644 adolescents aged 10-24 about their preferences for various types&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/10\/study-shows-teens-young-adults-want-less-sex-and-more-friendship-in-media.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2024-10-29T12:28:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2024\/10\/teens-friendship-media_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia 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