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Welcome to Playboy’s Gen Z Sex Survey. In partnership with The Kinsey Institute and the sexual health brand Julie, we talked to 2,373 adults ages 18 to 29 about their sex lives to get to the bottom of the so-called sex recession, and to get more insight on what’s really going on in the bedroom. Check out the full survey results here. This survey also appears in our Fall 2026 print issue. To have Playboy delivered to your door, subscribe here.
Dating apps promised to revolutionize romance. Instead, as one participant in Playboy‘s Gen Z Sex Survey wrote, “social media and dating apps make the [dating] process impersonal.” Another described modern dating as creating “choice paralysis.” These comments capture a surprising paradox. In theory, it should be easier than ever to meet a romantic partner. Yet over the past decade, study after study has found that young adults are having less sex. So what happened?
You’d think a generation raised on smartphones, social media, and dating apps would be more connected than ever. Instead, many young adults are spending more time connecting with their screens than with one another.
Digital intimacy is becoming an increasingly important part of young adults’ lives. Our recent research found that many young adults turn to AI companions, pornography, camming, and other forms of digital intimacy to meet emotional and sexual needs that were once more commonly fulfilled through in-person relationships. Rather than the internet simply helping us connect with other people, the relationship seems to be with the internet itself.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that young adults are becoming addicted to pornography, as popular headlines sometimes suggest. Instead, the findings point to something more nuanced: For a substantial minority of young adults, digital intimacy is no longer simply a supplement to relationships—it has become one way of meeting emotional and sexual needs that were once more commonly fulfilled through in-person connection.
Perhaps the most striking finding is just how commonplace digital intimacy has become. More than one-third of survey participants said that digital sexual content (including pornography and other erotic media) fulfilled at least some of their sexual needs; rates were even higher among men and singles.
So why are Gen Zers increasingly turning to forms of digital intimacy? As one survey participant put it,
Constant access to sexual content online reduces the need for real-life sexual activity.
In short, it’s easier.
The turn to technology doesn’t appear to reflect a lack of desire for intimacy. Only one in five young adults said they sometimes preferred digital sexual experiences over in-person intimacy. Instead, many described digital intimacy as easier, less emotionally demanding, and more accessible than pursuing a relationship or intimacy with another person. As one participant said, “It’s free, it’s always available, and there’s no risk of rejection.”
In the survey, 28 percent of participants agreed that digital sexual experiences were easier than in-person intimacy, and one in five agreed that this ease reduced motivation to pursue a partner. This was especially true for singles, among whom more than one in four agreed. With repeated exposure, digital intimacy may gradually reduce the motivation to pursue in-person romantic and sexual connections.
But there’s another side to the story: the burden of technology. With so much information at our fingertips, making decisions can become overwhelming. Dating apps are no exception. Rather than making connection easier, an endless stream of potential partners may leave young adults feeling emotionally drained. Nearly two-thirds of participants agreed that using dating apps or online dating felt exhausting, and nearly half felt that having too many options made it harder to connect with potential partners.
Does all this mean that technology is bad for romance? Not necessarily. But it does suggest we may need to rethink what the sex recession is really about. Perhaps the bigger story is not that Gen Z wants intimacy less. Maybe it’s that technology is changing where they find intimacy, how they experience it, and what they expect it to provide.
For the full breakdown of The Playboy 2026 Gen Z Sex Survey with the Kinsey Institute and Julie, visit sexsurvey.playboy.com.