How the environment affects our sexuality
Do you feel your libido is down? Or simply that it is more and more difficult to find someone to have physical relations with?
We explain why!
The term depression is a bit exaggerated, we live rather in a recession of sex (a decrease of the increase). Sexual trends have changed permanently, and this is because of the pandemic, but not only.
Sexual confidence is at an all-time low
The pandemic context has got the better of the sexual confidence of a lot of people, and that's normal after long months without any sexual relationship.
The concern is that for one-night stands, this is also the case. Nearly one in two French people say they are anxious and scared at the idea of going back to looking for relationships. Whether on Tinder or with our escort Beziers.
According to other studies, 14% of singles are nervous about post-lockdown dating, 20% are scared, and 24% say they don't really know how to act in a social environment anymore.
And it is logical: the confinement has generated (among singles) loneliness, and an emotional dead weight which are wounds to be healed. So it's normal to be a little rusty when it comes to romantic relationships and social circles in general.
We must not forget that the COVID-19 crisis has been a source of concern for the vast majority of people, and it still is today for some. Social life has been disrupted, leading people to talk to each other via the internet, which inevitably generates relative social anxiety and a drop in self-esteem.
The sexual rout
In France today, compared to the year 2018 pre-covid and confinement, the trends have changed radically. Nearly a third of married couples and a third of single people say they have less sexual intercourse on average.
After the great first wave of vaccination which finally allows people to find each other, in social contexts, it is clear that the attraction of sex is far below what it was before.
Why? The reasons are various, but let me tell you about an inhuman scientific experiment conducted in the last century.
An American scientist named Harry Harlow, having lived a relatively unhappy life, with an absent father and a mother who mistreats him, decides to carry out behaviorist studies.
He will conduct a study on monkeys, with the aim of discovering whether social isolation to different degrees produces behaviors or even psycho/neurological disorders. The result obtained after a battery of tests of insane violence are convincing.
A child monkey isolated for 3 months is unable to have social contact with other members of his species. He has a solitary or even autistic behavior, is closed in on himself, and cannot integrate or communicate.
So yes, even if we have social networks, and our brain is a little different from that of monkeys, confinement has had an impact on us. Socially…and sexually.
Couples tear each other apart
As we said earlier, this drop in morale is not only effective on the side of single people: married couples also have lower sexuality. One in three couples responds that they are making love less and less often, compared to a few years ago.
As the reason behind this feeling, there is in the first place the pressure. The pressure of change: remote work, school at home, finances which can be affected by the drop in diet due to confinement, being away from family and friends...
A whole series of worries which, accumulated, give a real reason to be anxious and diminished. As a result of these changes, life and the permanent pressure linked to the health risk strongly impacts people's minds, which gives them a burden charged with negative emotions, which, in the long term, deteriorates their couple.
It is therefore confinement that has contributed to a greatly increased number of breakups, as well as an increase in the number of divorces all over the world.
Indeed, the number of divorce applications has more than doubled since 2020.
And yes: living with your other half is good, but 24 hours a day, according to some, it makes you want to “rip the other's head off”.
Flirting at work is dead
Masks are less sexy. This statement is actually false, the mask conditioning our brain to create a kind of symmetrical and harmonious mental image of the lower face.
On the other hand, that does not prevent that the flirtations in the office are largely in decline. First, because working from home has become the new norm .
It is especially this point which leads to a big drop in this practice of “ office flirting ”.
In 2020, nearly two-thirds of people say they have been involved in a relationship or romantic act with a colleague.
40% of people admit to having sex with a former employee, and 30% say it led to a traditional long-term relationship.
The culture of seduction in the workplace is mainly perpetuated by the younger generations, who have slightly more active hormones. The workplace is also the place where people spend the majority of their days surrounded by their colleagues, so that's why it makes it a perfect opportunity to start romantic relationships.
The impact of remote work is enormous: access to partners is drastically low, and relationships will not last, or very little, since going out was prohibited.
It's a bit like the whole world has come to a standstill. This piece of nightmare could even be a reflection of the reality of the future, where one day, social interactions with our colleagues may cease to exist.
Indeed, many companies are now choosing to make remote working the new norm, and nearly a quarter of large companies expect to have staff working from home five days a week.