Are smart phones killing teenager’s desire to date?

Love’s young dream is dying out, according to new research.

People born after 1995 are much less interested in dating than the generation before them, a new book has revealed.

The first generation to spend their whole adolescence in the presence of smart phones, known as iGen, is replacing social interaction with social media.

Love’s young dream is dying out, according to new research. The first generation to spend all their whole adolescence in the presence of smart phones, known as iGen, is replacing social interaction with social media (stock image)

GENERATION GAPS

Sociology experts class those born in or before 1945 as the Silent Generation.

People born between 1946 and 1964 are known as Baby Boomers.

Those born between 1965 and 1980 are Generation X.

Anyone born between 1980 and 2000 are labelled Millennials.

The research was carried out by Professor Jean Twenge, from San Diego State University. 

She found that the effect of this is phenomenon is that the dating scene is dwindling.

More than half (56 per cent) of 14 to 18-year-olds went out on dates in 2015 but in comparison, for Generation X and Baby Boomers, it was around 85 per cent. 

The findings are presented in a new book, entitled ‘iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood–and What That Means for the Rest of Us’.

The book brings together surveys of 11 million young people as well as in-depth interviews.

‘Teens are spending an enormous amount of time, primarily on their smart phones and communicating with their friends electronically,’ Twenge told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.

‘What that’s meant is they are spending less time interacting with their friends in person, hanging out with their friends.’

Another effect is that sexual activity is declining too.

Since 1991, sexual activity in 14 and 15-year-olds has dropped by almost 40 per cent.

The average teenager has sex for the first time at 17 now, which is a year later than Generation X.

Sociology experts class those born in or before 1945 as the Silent Generation.

People born between 1946 and 1964 are known as Baby Boomers.

Professor Jean Twenge found that the effect of this is phenomenon is that the dating scene is dwindling. More than half (56 per cent) of 14 to 18-year-olds went out on dates in 2015 but in comparison, for Generation X and Baby Boomers, it was around 85 per cent (stock image)

Professor Jean Twenge found that the effect of this is phenomenon is that the dating scene is dwindling. More than half (56 per cent) of 14 to 18-year-olds went out on dates in 2015 but in comparison, for Generation X and Baby Boomers, it was around 85 per cent (stock image)

Those born between 1965 and 1980 are Generation X.

Anyone born between 1980 and 2000 are labelled Millennials.

A study published last year said that iGen, also known as Generation Z, are the most conservative since the Second World War.

The youngsters surveyed had more conservative views on gay marriage, transgender rights and drugs than Baby Boomers, Generation X or Millennials.

The questioned were more prudent than Millennials, Generation X and Baby Boomers but not quite as cash-savvy as those born in 1945 or before.

When asked to comment on same-sex marriage, transgender rights and cannabis legislation, 59 per cent of Generation X teenagers said they had conservative views.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk