Gen Z Not Interested in Sex, Romance, or Love Triangles in Movies or TV, Study Suggests

There’s yet more data out lending credence to the theory of Gen Z’s purported prudishness, with nearly half the respondents to a new survey saying there’s “too much sex and sexual content in TV and movies.” 

The data comes from the UCLA Center for Scholars and Storytellers’ annual “Teens & Screens” report, which digs into the consumption habits and proclivities of younger Americans. This year’s survey was conducted in August, with a sample group of 1,500 adolescents and young adults, aged 10 to 24, reflective of general Gen Z demographics in the U.S. “with regards to race, gender, and geographic region,” the study said. 

While studies have suggested that the number of sex scenes in movies has declined significantly since 2000 (with last year perhaps representing a slight uptick), 48.4 percent of respondents in the “Teens & Screens” study said there was still too much sexual content in movies and TV shows. Additionally, 60.9 percent said they wanted to see relationships onscreen that were “more about the friendship between the couple than sex,” while 59.7 percent said they wanted stories where the “central relationships are friendships.”

Friendship ranked third out of 19 in topics adolescents wanted to see onscreen. Romance ranked third to last with only 36.5 percent reporting high interest.

Furthermore, 54.1 percent of respondents said they wanted to see stories about people who were “uninterested in romance,” with that number rising to 57.1 percent among teens 18 and under. More than half of respondents (54.9 percent) also said they wanted to see more mixed-gender relationships where the characters “prioritize their friendship instead of turning it into a romantic relationship.” 

The responses to the bonus question, “What is your favorite show or movie?” were also decidedly unsexy. The top three were Stranger Things, Wednesday, and SpongeBob SquarePants, while Spider-Man and Family Guy were tied for fourth. Tied at six were two shows where romance does play a big role: The Vampire Diaries and The Summer I Turned Pretty. 

These findings are in line with those in “Teens & Screens” studies from the past couple years. For instance, in last year’s survey, 63.5 percent of teens strongly agreed with wanting to see “content that focuses on platonic relationships/friendships,” up from 51.5 percent in 2023. And in the 2024 survey, 62.4 percent of respondents agreed with the hate statement, “I feel that sex and sexual content is not needed for the plot of most TV shows and movies,” up significantly from 47.5 percent in 2023. 

From Rolling Stone US.