Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Photo
Topics: Sex and Relationships
Yasmeen Hamadeh
A new report has found that Gen Z are looking for long-term relationships and traditional romance instead of short flings and dating.
Although attitudes toward PDA and even monogamy are constantly changing, a new report by the Kinsey Institute at the University of Indiana and dating app Feeld suggests that Gen Z are leaning more toward long-term monogamous relationships than previously thought.
Based on polls of 3,310 users of the app across different countries, sexual orientations and ages, it found that 81 percent of participants born between 1997 and 2012 claimed they dreamed of being in a monogamous relationship, while 44 percent said they think about it often.
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Meanwhile, the results from older generations found that about 70 percent enjoy one-on-one commitment, while 25 percent consider it frequently.
Titled 'The State of Dating: How Gen Z is Redefining Sexuality and Relationships,' the report's researchers found that after analyzing the data, younger people have an 'unexpected affinity for monogamy.'
Study author Dr Justin Lehmiller elaborated on the results saying: "It is well documented that Gen Z is having less sex, fewer partners, and fewer relationships than generations that came before."
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"At the same time, a current trend is the romanticization of traditional relationships and roles," he added.
"There is a certain appeal to 'how things used to be' in the sense that they just seemed simpler.
"As dating has moved into the digital world, it has only become more complex," he continued. "It is possible that older adults have simply had more practice with monogamy, and found that it is not for them or have a craving for sexual newness."
With hookup culture and online dating leading to new (exhaustive) terms like 'situation-ships' or the all-too famous 'we're still in the talking phase,' it makes sense that Gen Z would be leaning toward the other direction and wanting more traditional intimacy.
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Per Cosmopolitan, there also seems to be a new embrace of PDA, like love letters or to use Gen Z's own terms 'simping,' with the outlet reporting that younger adults may no longer see it as embarrassing.
One woman named Maya told the magazine: "I’ve found myself embracing PDA more and more with my boyfriend.
"I think doing romantic and ‘cringey’ things that you wouldn’t do with anyone else adds a special element to the relationship that separates it from the other relationships in your life."
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While the report's results are shocking, as Gen Z has famously been considered to be a 'wilder' generation, as a Gen Z gal myself, they do make sense considering the larger sociocultural context we've found ourselves in.
Who would have thought?