Gen Zalpha doesn't really care for sex on TV — they're here for 'nomance' and on-screen friendships
Netflix
- Teens and young adults are over romance and sex in TV shows and movies, per a new survey.
- Those surveyed also ranked romantic tropes fourth on a list of 10 most disliked stereotypes.
- 51.5% of those surveyed want to see more "nomance," or content based on friendships and platonic relationships.
Teens and young adults are over romance and sex in TV shows and movies — what they really want to see on screen is a lot more "nomance."
Just under half, or 47.5%, of surveyed teens and young adults between the ages of 13 and 24, think sex and romance are overused plotlines in TV shows and movies, according to a recent Teens & Screens report by UCLA.
The report's authors surveyed 1,500 young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in August, with 100 teens from each age bracket. That age bracket makes the survey respondents part of Gen Zalpha. Respondents closely reflected the US Census in terms of race and gender, and only those between the ages of 13 to 24 were asked survey questions relating to sex and romance on screen.
In fact, those surveyed ranked romantic tropes fourth on a list of 10 most disliked stereotypes. The most disliked plot stereotypes included relationships being necessary to be happy, male and female leads always having to end up together romantically, and love triangles.
51.5% of those surveyed between the ages of 13 and 24 said they want to see more "nomance" — or content based on friendships and platonic relationships — in shows, with 39% saying they really want to see more aromantic and asexual characters on screen.
"I don't like [that] every time a male and female character are together on screen, studios feel the need to make them fall [in] love. there's a complete lack of platonic relationships in American cinema," one survey respondent said, per the report.
Stephanie Rivas-Lara and Hiral Kotecha, two of the report's authors, wrote in a separate post on Wednesday that the teens' and young adults' preference for non-romantic relationships could stem from being isolated during the COVID-19 years. Even Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, declared an epidemic of loneliness and isolation earlier this year.
"Young people are feeling a lack of close friendships, a separation from their community, and a sense that their digital citizen identity has superseded their sense of belonging in the real world," Rivas-Lara and Kotecha wrote in the post.
Gen Z and Alpha aren't just pushing back on romance on screen, these preferences are also propping up in the way they live their lives.
According to a Singles in America survey report published in January, a quarter of Americans — including 35% of Gen Z — say they are not looking for a relationship. And younger people are also having less sex than their parents did at their age, per UCLA's California health interview survey.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/J5X4EQN
No comments