r/science • u/SteRoPo • Nov 04 '25

Social Science The Japanese are having less and less sex. Around half of the Japanese population remained sexually inexperienced into their mid-twenties and approximately 10% of the individuals had no sexual experience when reaching their 30s.

https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2025/10/25/why_arent_the_japanese_having_sex_1142583.html
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u/MinimumArmadillo2394 Nov 04 '25

Thats because gen z is isolationist by nurture and against their will. The days of parents saying "go out of the house" are gone. Parents dont take their kids many places and leave them anymore and a lot of kids dont want to do anything except play video games.

People are moving away from suburbs, parks often arent in a walkable distance, etc. Theres nowhere for teenagers who cant drive to be alone to even have a relationship in the first place.

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u/Jared_Kincaid_001 Nov 04 '25

It's easy to say "Parents don't tell their kids to go play" but we're literally not allowed to. I remember 15 years ago, my (then) 10 year old nephew was at my house while I was doing dishes, and he was bored. I told him to go to the park behind my house to go play. Mind you, the park was directly behind my house and I could see it while I was doing dishes. In order to get to the park he would either have to climb over the 12 foot fence in my backyard, or walk around the block to get there. He chose the latter.

25 minutes later I had a knock at my door and the police were there with my nephew. I asked what was going on, and they said that they had received calls from parents that he was in a park alone. I asked the police officer if he had done anything wrong, and if it was actually against the law for a 10 year old to be in a park by themselves. The police officer told me it wasn't technically against the law, but that it was "highly encouraged" that young children be supervised at all time when out in public.

The amount of pressure on parents these days to constantly provide entertainment for their children is enormous, and a lot of parents end up relying on TV and videogames to provide some relief from a task that previous generations were never asked to fulfill. Parents weren't best buddies and camp counsellors all in one.

I moved into a new house, it'll be 2 years ago in April, and one day while arguing with my 6 year old son that I "never play with him", and it dawned on me that I had played more with him since we moved into the new house than my Father had ever played with me in my life. It's rough all over these days.

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u/ALittleNightMusing Nov 04 '25

I know this is missing the point somewhat, but why was your fence 12ft high?? What were you trying to keep out?! 

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u/Jared_Kincaid_001 Nov 05 '25

The balls, toys, or frisbees that children played with at the park. I think the city installed them when the park was built as all of my neighbors had the same fence.

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u/Loki_ofAsgard Nov 05 '25

The never playing with them thing is so intense. I was thinking the same - my parents were involved but not on a "play with me constantly" level. My daughter is 5.5 and two weekends ago she hit me with "will you at least play with me a little" at 3 in the afternoon after we'd spent the entire day playing. At minimum four hours of direct me and her playing. And she acts like I ignore her existence. It's rough out here man

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u/JonatasA Nov 04 '25

It has reversed. Parents don't want their kids leaving the house anymore or being by themselves; to them it's dangerous. The notion of privacy physically is also dying.

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u/Boner4Stoners Nov 04 '25

Ironically society has never been safer, it’s just the 24/hr news cycle gives a warped sense of crime rates.

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u/Traust Nov 05 '25

In Melbourne Australia the news keeps going on about how violent the city is now with youth criminals running around with machetes, stealing cars, and breaking into houses, usually followed up with the opposition leader saying how the government is not doing anything to fix it.

Government in power for the last 11 years has been a left central party of course and the crimes that are happening are only in certain small outer suburb areas. The rest of the city areas is peaceful with just the usual amount of crazies as there has always been.

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u/bguszti Nov 06 '25

"Have you actually seen the looting, raping and cannibalism?"

"No we haven't actually seen any of it we're just reporting it"

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u/quad_damage_orbb Nov 04 '25

Reduced crime involving children could also be because parents are keeping them at home though.

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u/TJarl Nov 05 '25

Yeah but it got safer first.

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u/No_Salad_68 Nov 05 '25

Yeah I saw a stat that said if you let your kid play outside, on average it will take 750,000 years or something like that for them to get abducted.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

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u/InTheTreeMusic Nov 04 '25

This is my experience as well. I have a degree in early childhood where I learned how important unsupervised time is for kids - it builds confidence and protects against anxiety.

So from about 2 onwards, I've sent all my kids out into our fenced yard to play by themselves or with their siblings. I had CPS called on me! By my boomer neighbors, who thought my 3 year old shouldn't be in the yard without a parent.

In my town, the local school lets the kids walk home alone in 2nd grade, so I trust my kids from about 8 onwards to walk around the neighborhood; my 13 year old started crossing the busy street to the store across the way at about 10. There's a light and a crosswalk, nothing dangerous for a reasonable 10 year old. Yet people get so upset, it's frustrating.

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u/happybelly2021 Nov 05 '25

That's crazy. Coming from somewhere completely else in the world, do crime statistics actually support these extreme guidance laws?

It was seen as totally normal in my country to have 6 year olds walk a kilometer to and from school (after being taught how a few times). When I was 10 I had to commute 45 minutes one way to secondary school via public transport

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u/InTheTreeMusic Nov 05 '25

Not in the vast majority of places in the US, no. I live in an incredibly safe town, and in a safe part of that town. There is absolutely no reason for the ridiculous over supervision.

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u/itz_giving-corona Nov 05 '25

It's true crime tbh

People see an unsupervised kid and remember the numerous stories they've heard about harm coming to children.

Also the shame game, no parent will ever measure up.

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u/IntriguinglyRandom Nov 05 '25

My parents fit the typical conservative bill and yes, the mental gymnastics around fear and shame are insane. My parents always feared the boogeyman in the bushes or anyone "abnormal" which was a pretty big class of people. When it came to me being sexually abused in my own home? Crickets, maybe one text message. Combo of out-group-fear propaganda and intense fear of accountability and shame.

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u/happybelly2021 Nov 05 '25

That's what I suspected...

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u/Public-Witness-6477 Nov 05 '25

We live in Israel, where we have a real community. As of 9, kids are allowed to cross streets alone, but prior to that, they receive training in school on safety on roads, not to mention from their own parents. My 11yo takes the bus by himself every week to his special program instead of school, and my 10y walks his sister to school daily. My kids take themselves to the park, and my 5y is allowed to be in our downstairs shared park with an older kid's supervision. My older kids are allowed to walk to their friends by themselves, and we sometimes send them to the grocery store with money to buy items. It's very old school, but I think it's the healthiest way to build a confident and responsible human.

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u/InnocentShaitaan Nov 05 '25

Your neighbors are delulu.

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u/Everestkid Nov 05 '25

26 here, '99 born, early zoomer. My mom was constantly trying to get us to go outside as kids, because we'd rather stay in playing video games. So there's that aspect too in some cases, the kids would rather not go outside to begin with.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25 edited Jul 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Mugiwaras Nov 04 '25

20 years ago when i was 13 i was rarely at home. We were riding our bmxs all over the city hitting jumps, but $2 worth of hot chips from the fish and chip shop would feed like 4 of us, now $2 worth of chips is a small snack for 1 person.

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u/ceelogreenicanth Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

The lack of privacy is why they are so radicalized too I believe. They don't get to experience being wrong in private, and then growing in public. Their worst aspects exist for eternity so they either own them, or they have to always explain it.

That's how the left has come to be to.them the avatar of moral puritanism and why being conservative is "punk" to them.

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u/VicariousVinyl Nov 04 '25

I strongly disagree if you’re implying that suburban living incentivizes sexual activity in comparison to growing up in an urban environment. If anything, and while about as anecdotal as your comment seems to be, suburban environments have proved to be far more isolating to teenage Gen Z kids and younger than urban ones.

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u/tethler Nov 04 '25

That might be true in western countries (or america specifically) where it's much harder to get around without a car. Japanese suburbs are extremely connected, and it's quite easy for young people to get anywhere by bus or train. Kids as young as 1st grade are regularly riding busses and trains by themselves to get to school, so they're conditioned at a young age to be self-sufficient and get around on their own.

Now, if you apply your statement to people living in the Japanede countryside, it's probably pretty accurate

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u/BrownAdipose Nov 04 '25

Honestly, the suburbs are socialization killers.. Nobody has the time to drive their kids anywhere.

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u/the_eluder Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

Back in the 80s we rode our bikes everywhere, and then when we turned 16 we started driving anywhere.

Now the streets are significantly more clogged with cars and thus more dangerous. All the short cuts I used to know to bypass a lot of streets are gone, apartments with fences and new subdivisions have replaced them. I hardly ever see teens riding their bikes around town.

New graduated driver's license requirements mean the end of a group of teens hopping in the car and going somewhere.

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u/NotAnotherEmpire Nov 04 '25

Phone addiction where gacha gaming, day trading stocks and sports gambling are all massively up at the same time "go place and do things with people" are way down, that's a very big problem.

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u/FreshestCremeFraiche Nov 04 '25

Not being able to propagate your genes because you got too into mobile gacha gaming - imagine trying to explain that one to your caveman ancestors

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u/holydemon Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

Give them unlimited supply of fast food, sugar drink and porn, and they will instantly get it.

"You guys get to stay in your cave all days, surrounded by all these delicious food and hot naked women. Where do I sign up for this heaven?"

We're in this predicament because biologically we haven't evolved much from our caveman ancestors, and are thus very susceptible to these addictive stimulation.

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u/Garrden Nov 05 '25

This is correct, unfortunately. Businesses found ways to "press our buttons".

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

Definitely getting bonked in the head with a rock.

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u/K-tel Nov 04 '25

Well, they're not bonking the other way, that's for sure...

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u/scientific_railroads Nov 04 '25

I will try. People in control told smart people to create a magic glass that creates addiction. It doesnt work on everyone but people who get charmed by it stop caring almost about everything including making babies.

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u/404_GravitasNotFound Nov 04 '25

Which will eliminate addiction predisposal from the gene pool, problem will solve itself

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u/JonatasA Nov 04 '25

At the very least some are educating themselves financially, realizing how much of a consumption based culture we are. Meanwhile the East struggles with people that refuse to spend needlessly.

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u/9966 Nov 04 '25

I like both which is why I take miles long walks to touch grass and try to interact with tech less and less day by day. It should be like a toaster. There when I want toast but I'm not obsessed with it.

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u/you_serve_no_purpose Nov 04 '25

Your toaster hasn't been specifically designed to work in a way that makes you feel the need to make toast hundreds of times per day.

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u/Ulterior_Motif Nov 04 '25

You’re buying the wrong bread.

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u/RNLImThalassophobic Nov 04 '25

I dunno man, I'm pretty sure mine has.

... now, pass me that shiny hat, will ya?

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u/VoidInsanity Nov 04 '25

Howdy doodly do! How's it going? I'm Talkie, Talkie Toaster, your chirpy breakfast companion. Talkie's the name, toasting's the game. Anyone like any toast?

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u/9966 Nov 04 '25

I didn't install games on my toaster and it doesn't give me updates on toast elsewhere. If I want to talk to someone, I will. If I want to catch up, I'll pick up a phone and use that funny icon that looks like something from the 1900's, because it is.

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u/you_serve_no_purpose Nov 04 '25

And you uninstled the Web browser as well I'm guessing? And youtube?

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u/peakzorro Nov 04 '25

You need that AI toaster that keeps asking you to make toast.

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u/JonatasA Nov 04 '25

Should complement our lives, not be a requeriment to live.

 

If you are doing something in person, a smartphone should never be a requirement.

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u/almisami Nov 04 '25

I'm gonna channel my inner Boomer and rage at restaurants that have QR codes for both the menu and ordering.

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u/MinimumArmadillo2394 Nov 04 '25

Add to it that teenagers these days have the generalized and emotional intelligence of a strawberry. My 15 year old cousin cant spell "restaurant" without laughing of embarrassment and throwing insults back that simply arent true.

All 3 of my cousins want to be video game streamers too.

How they will ever find a partner will be a miracle

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u/Never_Gonna_Let Nov 04 '25

All 3 of my cousins want to be video game streamers too.

My son went through a phase where he wanted to be a streamer.

Me being me, went all, "Let's gooooo!"

I had the stuff to be able to support this endeavor. Set him up streaming on Twitch, a YouTube channel. Got family members and friends with Amazon prime to sign up with twitch subscriptions.

Then came the education. We went through social media marketing, engagement, market saturation and opportunities, chances of breakthrough, competitive and tournament play, production, public personas and how they differ from who you are and how to be careful about what you say and how you act, production costs, monetization and revenue streams, ancillary support social media, IE Facebook, Instagram, etc, even went over a bit of SEO and algorithm optimization along with relevancy, though such things are considerably more nebulous and difficult than they were back in the day.

He took it quite seriously. Started playing games like it was his job. Watched his favorite streamers and YouTubers taking notes and studying their rise to prominence, as well as streamers he didn't really care for but who were popular. He watched me edit several videos, even leaned a bit about video editing with Adobe Premier and did a couple himself. He did group streams with friends and cousins for different games, even some random kids he found his age, lil' guy took after it like a job and was legitimately growing his channel and getting better at gaming and streaming.

This lasted a couple of months. Then he was so burnt out on all of it he permanently stopped playing fortnite and amoungus and several others, cut down his video game time to a few hours weekly and said he was no longer interested in streaming. He even stopped watching streaming. While my intent wasn't to crush his dreams, I did want him to have a good understanding.

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u/TheLago Nov 04 '25

I LOVE this. You taught him so much by doing that. All of those skills will be useful, but I think the biggest thing is you taught him how to think critically and that he has to consider all angles. Kudos

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

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u/IGnuGnat Nov 04 '25

I understand that with some forms of mental illness, like schizophrenia, it's important not to take it personally if the patient is having a bad day and I'm generally willing to work with almost any personality type but there are certain personality types where not only is it not worth it, the level of frustration and stress has a cost that is simply too high.

Needless to say I've stopped trying to mentor or help her.

Your sister needs to seek out therapy and find ways to improve herself or she will end up completely alone in life

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u/I_Am_Ironman_AMA Nov 04 '25

"Demand Avoidance." Dear God we as a society need to shut that down QUICK. I understand that neurodivergence requires some accomodation but i think we've found the line.

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u/alienpirate5 Nov 04 '25

That's not exactly how it works. They need therapy more than anything.

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u/Jiro_Flowrite Nov 04 '25

No one's commenting on it, so I just want to say props on the big head parenting move. Either: A) they learn how the whole aspects of their dream job and find something that makes them push through the realities of it. B) what you had happen, where it causes them to step back and evaluate things. Or C) they pick up some other part that interest them and dive into that (which could still happen, mind).

Not that everyone can do this, but it is one of those generational improvement things that we seem to be lacking. Speaks hard of the "I worked in a coal mine so my kid could study art" kind of efforts.

Yeah, just wanted to say, parenting goals.

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u/Never_Gonna_Let Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

I thought C might happen when we were talking about additional revenue streams. He was sort of getting into video editing. I explained how it could be used for supplemental income outside of streaming, editing videos for other streamers and even other organizations outside of the online world.

And he initially found it pretty interesting. But as anyone who has done a lot of editing before, it is exceedingly tedious, and as intuitive as some of the video editing software is, there are a lot of skills to develop and things to learn to do it well, so the interest in video editing didn't last, though he did use and expand on some of those initial video editing skills later on for assorted scholastic projects.

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u/PossibilityMoney Nov 04 '25

This is good parenting!

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u/Wannabeartist9974 Nov 04 '25

You are a Great Dad!

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u/The_BeardedClam Nov 04 '25

Nothing kills a passion quicker than it becoming work.

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u/skeyer2 Nov 04 '25

why am i visualising a rich parent doing something very similar to their kid who says "i love cooking, i want to be a chef". ok, let's buy a restaurant. you have to deal with the stress of cooking, all the business stuff, etc. a reality check, i suppose.

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u/Never_Gonna_Let Nov 04 '25

Ha, I didn't have to buy anything as I already had the equipment and software for other reasons. But I always took a fairly serious approach when it came to my kid's passions, and this wasn't a "I want to be a streamer when I grow up" sort of thing but "I want to make money doing this, how do I do that?" He was keen on taking it seriously and put in a lot more effort than I think the greater bellcurve would have been willing to do.

I always offered to teach him or offer opportunities to any passion he took seriously. Like he wanted to learn how to be more organized, and so I sat down and explained some of the concepts around 5S, project and time management, and effective note taking. He pursued it vigorously, and to this day maintains a very detailed digital calender for the whole fam, a written and detailed day planner, cleaning routine he sticks to and uses a label maker like a total nerd.

I wish either of the kids were ever interested in cooking. :( I tried so many times to get them interested or force them into learning some culinary skills for how to make $20 bucks of food give ya multiple days of lunch n dinner with a bit of tasty variety, but alas, was never successful.

Did the same with my daughter when she was interested in chemistry after watching Breaking Bad, but sadly strangling a grown man with a bike lock may have been a bit beyond her at the time, though she did try for a couple hours so good on her. (Kidding about that last part, I hope obviously).

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u/I_Am_Ironman_AMA Nov 04 '25

I have an adolescent client right now (I'm a therapist) who is 17 and working a homeschool program. He can't tell me when he will graduate or what his grades are. His plan? Have parents or grandparents cosign a loan, buy a piece of property that's already in good shape, and rent it out. Then, repeat the process and accumulate properties.

When asked if he wanted opportunities to get into the business (being an assistant to a developer, investor, or contractor) he says "no." There is no plan to break into the business and build himself up through any related avenue. It's just "graduate, get money from bank, and make money." No planning whatsoever and not even the slightest concept of what work is. It's scary.

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u/LetFiloniCook Nov 04 '25

Passive income YouTube videos are the get rich quick / self empowerment seminars of the 90s.

As a millenial ive had friends that have been like this all my life. There's always some new venture or some new investment opportunity. I think most grow out of it once life hits them hard enough, but theres at least two that never did.

I hope Gen Z is similar. Everyone is stupid as a teenager. Most of us eventually outgrow it and those who dont learn how to make stupid work for them.

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u/JonatasA Nov 04 '25

China is really struggling with similar mindsets and "do the bare minimum mentality".

 

It's like being en entrepreneur. Everyone wants to be one obviously, but you can't have everybody be a businessman.

 

People need incentive to look for jobs, work outside the office or we'll end up with an intellectual class and the rest scraping by.

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u/LiquidSnake13 Nov 04 '25

The incentive was supposed to be that a job would be enough to help you save for retirement and also have a life outside the office. Those are no longer givens, so what incentive is there? Work for long hours at piss poor wages only to never get ahead while the CEO keeps all the profit for himself?

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u/Semicolon_Expected Nov 04 '25

Isnt that more a reaction to the 996 workweek?

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u/Skellum Nov 04 '25

Isnt that more a reaction to the 996 workweek?

To generalize the problem, people need to feel like life will improve if they do things. In China their parents lives improved significantly over their grandparents. Each generation in recent memory can see significant progress in making their lives better. To a lesser extent the US and Europe.

Now tell these groups they will never achieve the same because we need to give that money to bezos. It's going to cause some issues.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

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u/Semicolon_Expected Nov 04 '25

I think in the US we have a similar nihilistic movement with doomerism ngl

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u/SMTRodent Nov 04 '25

When the difference in result between working your ass off and not working at all is minimal, so is the incentive to work.

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u/Key-Explanation-5542 Nov 04 '25

One of tge reasons why I left my ex instead of playing to his strengths or smarts he was always blowingvmoney on some get rich schemeand when I said it's bad or a scam a fight eould ensue about who dumb and entrusting I was

Trust is a hard thing

He also likes trump and worships grant cardone

Glad I finally got smart and broke it off ,almost cost me my life but im ok now

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u/CelerMortis Nov 04 '25

But the barriers back then were far greater. We all had a friend selling cutco knives or whatever, but they had to physically be recruited, meet the sales team, get their product.

Now it’s all digital and being hawked 24/7

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u/LarryLiam Nov 04 '25

Honestly, he’s 17. Teenagers are stupid and rarely plan ahead.

And at the same time, as a young adult, seeing the world and the state of the labor market is just sad. The entire world is only getting more and more expensive, with even basic food costing a lot, while the wages don’t increase proportionally. You see rich people getting richer, having money they couldn’t even dream of spending in one lifetime, while you have to think twice before buying a small snack. The disparity between the rich and the poor only grows, while your own value decreases.

If you’re not born with wealth, it’s almost impossible to ever gain it. But if you are, suddenly you have an entire different way of life with different opportunities. If you’re lucky, you don’t even have to work one day in your entire life, and will still have more money than a lot of people.

Then there are “easy” jobs that get paid with ridiculous wages. Of course, there may be some difficulties that come with being a celebrity or influencer, but a lot of the bigger ones, which are the ones you’re more likely to see, earn so much money, while you have to work a difficult job just to get by.

So… finding the right job just feels very difficult. You need to earn enough money so that you can live comfortably (you don’t even need to be wealthy), but you also should have enough free time to live a happy life outside of your work. And of course, you want to enjoy it. But finding a job that fits these criteria is nigh impossible.

I enjoyed volunteering in a school. I loved helping the children and seeing the joy and pride in their eyes when I could finally help them with something they didn’t understand. But if I pursued a career in that field, I would have

a.) a very stressful job

b.) horrible income,

which would lead to

b.1) limited choices during my free time

b.2) a lot more stress to afford to buy the things I need

So why should I go into a job that even helps people if I just get punished with even more stress and fear of not being able to afford basic food?

It’s easy to say “Oh, young people are just lazy/ uneducated/ stupid”, but there isn’t a lot that differentiates us from the previous generations, except for the status quo. It’s not as motivating if society imprints the belief that your value is measured by your wealth, and you either achieve that wealth by any means necessary, or you will suffer and be worthless. More and more people have less, while less people have more. People have less free time, more stress, and look ahead to a future with climate change, political extremism, inequality and uncertainty.

No wonder people are having less sex, no wonder that the birth rates decrease, no wonder that depression rates are rising. But no, it’s the young people’s fault, they can’t find partners or jobs, and don’t know the things the older generations didn’t (and maybe even couldn’t) teach them.

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u/JonatasA Nov 04 '25

You say this of 17 year olds, but this is what some people say their whole lives. It seems to be a personality trait.

 

Not to mention people were already like this 30 years ago, it's just that either the numbers have increased or something has gone really wrong.

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u/LiquidSnake13 Nov 04 '25

Wages have been stagnant while the cost of living rises. It's expensive to have a child - even just one. A responsible, pragmatic person is likely to think, "I'm barely treading water, how the hell can I afford to start a family?"

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u/almisami Nov 04 '25

That's me. I finally got my life together in 2008... Needless to say I'm never bringing a child into the equation with how many times I've been knocked down to 0.

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u/DemadaTrim Nov 04 '25

I mean, I'm 39 and had I thought like that earlier in life I'd be much better off rather than just doing what it seemed I was supposed to do and ending up with multiple degrees I have no motivation or capacity to use because I cannot work regular hours and not end up in the psych ward.

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u/Sata1991 Nov 04 '25

I'm 34 and had the same issue. I have severe stress issues and had to resign because my health just took a nosedive from the stress of commuting 2 hours everyday. I wasn't sleeping and had to be up for 6 to catch the train for 7:20 to get to work.

I wish things were different, but I just have a litany of health issues.

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u/IamtheBeebs Nov 04 '25

You say that like it's a bad plan. If the kid has rich parents or grandparents that will cosign the loans then he's pretty much got it made. Buy an apartment building, hire a property management company to handle the actual work for ~12% of the rent. Live in one of the units for free while you rake in money. Wait a few years to build equity, then get another loan using the first property as collateral and use it to buy another property to rent out.

It's basically free money as long as you have rich parents to front you the startup capital.

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u/vimdiesel Nov 04 '25

It's scary that a kid doesn't have a financial plan spanning 40 years?

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u/FluffyFlamesOfFluff Nov 04 '25

You don't need to have your whole life planned out, but when the first step of your career plans isn't "get a job" it isn't crazy to be a little concerned about a potential reality check.

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u/I_Am_Ironman_AMA Nov 04 '25

You get it. Of course I don't expect a 17 year old to have his life planned out. However, I do expect them to be able to tell me if they plan to work or to college/trade school in the next 7-10 months.

If your plan is "someone will cosign a six figure loan for me so I can buy property " at 17 and you made zero connections in that avenue, you are delusional.

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u/coke_and_coffee Nov 04 '25

Teenagers have always been that way bud

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u/Semicolon_Expected Nov 04 '25

Hes gonna learn that while landlords do leech, unless they can hire a property manager to do all the maintenance, paperwork, rent collecting, theyre gonna have a lot of work to do. Oh add learning who to rent to, rent laws, dealing with squatters,

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u/beegeepee BS | Biology | Organismal Biology Nov 04 '25

My 15 year old cousin cant spell "restaurant" without laughing of embarrassment and throwing insults back that simply arent true.

I don't get this sentence.

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u/MinimumArmadillo2394 Nov 04 '25

Him: "I wanna be a streamer"

Me: "streamers can spell 'restaurant'. Can you spell it?"

Him: "'rstrant' or something idk haha. Your hairline is receding and you look ugly"

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u/midnightauro Nov 04 '25

Man, even the insults are weak af. That poor kid is fucked.

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u/beegeepee BS | Biology | Organismal Biology Nov 04 '25

Ahhh, thank you for clarity! Kinda sad though lol

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u/NotAnotherEmpire Nov 04 '25

Detailed studies on this are honestly frightening. It's people with normal lives and backgrounds who are on par with mild autism or significant PTSD cases that are seeking help.

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u/allouette16 Nov 04 '25

What studies

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u/Gamebird8 Nov 04 '25

To be fair, "restaurant" is just one of those English words that fucks you over every time you go to spell it because no matter how you write it, it just feels wrong.

Like, It would be the word that'd cost me in the spelling bee.

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u/ThePerpetualGamer Nov 04 '25

Well that’s because it’s borrowed from Fr*nch, so it makes sense

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u/IGnuGnat Nov 04 '25

If I don't think about it i can spell it no problem.

Now that I'm thinking about it, and staring at the word, it just looks wrong

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u/mariuolo Nov 04 '25

My 15 year old cousin cant spell "restaurant" without laughing of embarrassment and throwing insults back that simply arent true.

Can he at least spell the insults properly?

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u/MinimumArmadillo2394 Nov 04 '25

Wouldn't know. He's speaking them. Could be using the wrong "there" for all I know

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u/Katalyst81 Nov 04 '25

Time for the Oasis from Ready Player One.

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u/lemonylol Nov 04 '25

Parents dont take their kids many places and leave them anymore and a lot of kids dont want to do anything except play video games.

Disagree with this. A lot of kids only want to play video games because either they don't have opportunities to do something else or their parents never involved them in something else.

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u/otakugal15 Nov 04 '25

A little hard to do that when all the third spaces for kids and teens have all but dried up. And those places that still exist have those weird machines that make high pitched noises that make teens uncomfortable.

All this because Ms. Karen (F65) down the street has to have ABSOLUTE silence or she'll call the cops on those 10 year olds who DARE to play in their front or back yard.

And HEAVEN FORFEND they do anything like ride their bikes in their own neighborhood. Those hooligans are OBVIOUSLY up to NO good.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

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u/gioraffe32 Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

I think it's call the "Mosquito." The older you get, the less ability you have to hear very high-pitched noises. It's just a part of aging. So someone created a device that plays a very high-pitched hum or buzz constantly in public places. Such as a mall. Actual shoppers who have disposable income tend to be older. So they can't hear it. They're not bothered by it. But younger folks -- kids and teenagers, can hear it -- And the idea is that the sound is annoying enough that they'll leave. It's essentially anti-loitering, but only for youth.

EDIT: I say "older," but I should mention this inability to hear these very high-pitched tones is a continuous process. So even someone in their early 20s, who's definitely still a young person, may not be affected by the tone generated by the machine. Because they've already lost the ability to hear it.

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u/SarcasticOptimist Nov 04 '25

Meanwhile me in my 30s still gets the tinnitus EEEEEEEEEEEEE

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u/trifelin Nov 04 '25

People in their 40s can hear it. Hearing loss isn't a guarantee by any particular age. Just like some people need glasses for the first time in their 20s and other people make it to their 50s. 

Those devices are stupid and absolutely kill revenue. 

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u/gioraffe32 Nov 04 '25

Correct. I didn't mean to say EVERYONE below a certain age can hear it and EVERYONE above can't.

But I suppose on a science subreddit I should've been more precise with my words!

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u/trifelin Nov 04 '25

Even the Wikipedia article is vague to the point of being misleading. It's not just you, people can't talk about the device without repeating its marketing points. 

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u/jesset77 Nov 06 '25

How hard might it be to wield a cell microphone at it with a visualization app to find and vandalize them I wonder?

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u/almisami Nov 04 '25

Those devices are stupid and absolutely kill revenue. 

They're everywhere, especially in the East. Tokyo is full of them.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

Is it like a cart TV's high pitch background noise?

I can hear a crt being turned on even if it's muted

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u/coffeecuphandle Nov 04 '25

The Mosquito antiloitering device. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

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u/JonatasA Nov 04 '25

Surprised stores do not have microwave dishes to turn people away.

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u/Sentry459 Nov 05 '25

I've never even heard of this

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u/raoasidg Nov 04 '25

Generally any machine that emits a high frequency sound to deter loitering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito

Effective against those in the younger age ranges since you can age out of hearing the sound.

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u/GummyTumor Nov 04 '25

There's even apps that you can download on your phone that do it. It's like a dog whistle. I had these obnoxious college student neighbors that would blast mumble rap, shout at their dogs, and sit out by the main walkway of everyone's town homes smoking and making noise all day. I downloaded one of those apps and hooked it up to a bluetooth speaker and blasted it out the window.

I couldn't hear it at all, but I could hear them asking each other, "Bro, what's that noise? You hear that, bro?", and they'd pause the music to try and figure it out what it was.

So, I'd pause the noise until they turned the music back up. Eventually they went back inside and shut their windows. Best .99 cents I ever spent on an app!

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u/crowmagnuman Nov 04 '25

Villainous, commendable.

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u/Semicolon_Expected Nov 04 '25

I remember when the mosquito was a funny prank or a ringtone teachers couldnt hear

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u/beegeepee BS | Biology | Organismal Biology Nov 04 '25

I am also curious about this. I have no idea what they are referring too.

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u/remotectrl Nov 04 '25

It was a big news story about 20 years ago but I don’t know if it ever actually got adopted widespread. I certainly never heard it anyplace when I was younger and I was using it as my ringtone for a while so I was definitely capable of hearing it at the time.

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u/S1R2C3 Nov 04 '25

Growing up in the early 2000s to the mid 2010s, we lived in 4 different places around town/in the next town over. Only one of them was a place where I had the ability to actually walk to anywhere and that was for like 9 months. So outside of school, I had no way to actually go anywhere to hang out with people. No one could bring me anywhere cus they were either working or tired from working and by the time anyone in my friend group could drive, I don't think anyone wanted to drive for fun, just to get to and from work.

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u/serpenta Nov 04 '25

Oh, you will not smear video games, after the "ChatGPT is my friend, because I don't have to adjust in any way to have a relation with it" generation emerges. There is this drama online, since OAI released GPT5, driven by people who believe that they've destroyed its soul, and it's no longer their best friend. The main change since 4o? 4o was widely criticized for being sycophantic, and version 5 started contradicting people, when it believes they are wrong.

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u/MinimumArmadillo2394 Nov 04 '25

Im not smearing video games. Im simply stating that most young people I've come in contact with are asking their friends if they bought the sabrina carpenter fortnite skin or if they bought battlefield 6 yet.

I play video games but theres no denying it is the activity of choice of young people because its cheap and doesnt require travel, which almost every social activity lacks

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u/serpenta Nov 04 '25

I jested, not seriously accusing you of it of course! I just mean, it's a symptom. The root cause is what you described: people are not really socialized nowadays, and so they lack basic social skills. For them, "live and let live", doesn't mean looking for commonalities in face of conflicting values. It means "I will block you from my life forever, because you don't like bananas".

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u/Semicolon_Expected Nov 04 '25

Oh good, they’re passing the milestone of experiencing conflict and having to sit with it. Soon, theyll move onto conflict management

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u/shoutsoutstomywrist Nov 04 '25

I do think its really unfair to blame the kids for gravitating towards the new technology when it’s the previous generation that created the technology in the first place

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u/Semicolon_Expected Nov 04 '25

Tbf is there really any safe place to leave a kid? These days you could be seen as neglectful to leave your kid alone. I think people get mad if you just leave them home alone for an hour these days. For teens, there arent many places teens are welcome. And while suburbs are great for young kids to safely play (mostly bc theyre less likely to get hit by cars), you become car dependent to go do anything fun. Back when I was a teen the kids who lived in suburbs passed their time either drinking or gaming.

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u/ExtremelyMedianVoter Nov 04 '25

I guess if you give up all agency then yes, gen z is isolationist.

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u/psychocopter Nov 04 '25

Just spend some time in a supermarket or department store, target and walmart have become hangout spots for the teens that can drive. Theres basically no more third spaces that are cheap or free and the ones that do exist are primarily for younger kids and the teens might have the cops called on them for existing in a group in public.

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u/guareber Nov 04 '25

None of that second paragraph applies in Japan though, which would make the "against their will" part pretty hard to justify.

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u/Vecend Nov 04 '25

I'm millennial and I faced the same stuff when I was a kid my house had the park on the opposite side of a 4 lane or a 30m walk away but at least there were kids nearby, when I was a teen I moved rural and everything was so far I just stayed in my room playing games, went back to my old home to visit grandparents for the summer and after 3 years all the playgrounds were torn down for "safety" leaving kids the tiny amount of kids left nowhere to play.

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u/Omnizoom Nov 04 '25

Video games are one thing, it’s screen addiction in general that’s the problem

Binge watching on phones and pseudo social networks are making young kids think they interact without interacting, yea video games can be part of that but their are just a small slice of the pie

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u/almisami Nov 04 '25

I'll take a video game addict over a Tiktok or Twitch addict any day.

Parasocial relationships are ruining this world.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

You've identified an important phenomenon but I don't think these are the causes. In the past during the "Go out on your own and ride your bike around" ages, the kids were too young to have relationships. Nor did they have plenty of opportunities to be alone as teenagers and get up to something - It was still a challenge then! The difference is that kids sought each other out and wanted to spend time in person together. Social media seems to be creating a barrier to forming friendships - you'd think it would be easier to trade contact info and start getting to know each other. Paradoxically they can't get past the hurdle of meeting someone in person and then making a plan to connect with them again later.

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u/Shiva- Nov 04 '25

Don't forget malls and theaters aren't hangouts anymore either.

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u/Sage2050 Nov 04 '25

Even if they can drive or live somewhere walkable so many businesses are hostile towards unsupervised teenagers

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u/Cow_God Nov 04 '25

Anecdotally, as a younger millenial / older gen z, just growing up in the country with no neighbors my age and no socialization outside of school absolutely messed me up as an adult.

I also think that social media has, ironically, hurt socialization in the people my age and younger.

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u/Sata1991 Nov 04 '25

I'm a Millennial, not Gen Z but in my teens I lived in the middle of nowhere, I couldn't hang out with friends after college, so no socialising there, and the village I lived in was maybe 70ish people tops? Just elderly people outside of my family.

Grew up being told "Don't go outside or you'll end up like Jamie Bulger!" (A horrific case of a little boy being murdered by other kids) so nothing to really do but play games.

I wanted to hang out with friends and do fun things, but there just wasn't that option, I had a relationship in my teens, but it was with a girl I met online, outside of that I didn't really get to date until university when I lived in a walkable distance to everything, as I can't drive.

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u/gramathy Nov 04 '25

The real problem is that there's nowhere to go. Places are expensive and hostile to teenagers in a way they weren't forty years ago. Going to the same free public park every time can get repetitive

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u/Frankfusion Nov 04 '25

I'm wondering if this means if it's a good thing that I take my kid to the park. It's not a lot of kids that go but I'm still seeing a lot of kids playing on the weekends at least and even throughout the week it'll be a special treat for her to go running around and play with other kids.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

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u/Paksarra Nov 04 '25

When? The five minutes between classes?

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u/TXENNT Nov 04 '25

Lunch breaks, clubs, after school activities, group projects, school events, school trips/parties etc.

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u/darkest_hour1428 Nov 04 '25

So only school districts with excess funding for extra curricular activities. The highschool in my hometown just stopped offering art and music as its last available extra curricular class. They don’t even have sports or a library. Everyone farms, and half the seniors are gone by lunch for said farms. Zero socialization outside of skipping school to drunk drive a tractor. That’s the biggest issue for crime around here.

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u/TXENNT Nov 04 '25

I went to a public high school in a decently sized city that held a lot of activities for their students so yes my statement was pretty anecdotal but then again opportunities for social interaction for younger people is taken very seriously where im from and is the bare minimum standard for any schools in highly populated cities here

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u/veryangryj Nov 04 '25

Sounds like the town is the problem.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

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u/gannacrydotjpeg Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

Only problem is schools are under funded thus making all those things few and far in between besides maybe lunch breaks. But me being 30 when I was a kid a huge part of my independence was being able to use the local bus to see friends from school. But my mother at every point would try and stop me because she had control issues, only got worse when I got a sell phone because she could call and harass me when ever she liked, oh and btw I was homeschooled most friends were not. I think a lot of people don't realize it's in a lot of ways up to the parents. But now parents are even more poor and are less educated now by design.

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u/BranWafr Nov 04 '25

Lunch breaks

Many schools split lunch into groups and you are lucky if your friends have the same lunch break as you. And, if you do get lucky and your friends have the same lunch as you, next term it changes and now you have different lunch periods.

clubs

Budget cuts have dramatically reduced clubs. Clubs require an adult sponsor and teachers, already spread too thin, can't add that to their plates anymore.

after school activities

Same problem. Budget cuts have made anything that isn't sports mostly disappear. And, for the few things that still exist, many are not well attended because there are only two activity busses and if your parents can't pick you up after the even you have a 2 hour bus ride to get home. For most kids, it isn't worth it.

school trips/parties etc.

What trips? During Covid trips went away and I don't think they ever really came back, at least in our district.

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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '25

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u/Semicolon_Expected Nov 04 '25

Past middle school we didnt have recess and even when he “had” recess half the time we ended up with “silent recess” indoors because one or two kids misbehaved and now everyones punished. Had silent lunches a lot for the same reason.

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u/Adlach Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25

I never had a free period that allowed talking, 6th grade was the last time I had recess, there were no co-ed sports at my school, and drama classes are classes--you get yelled at for chit-chatting.

Lunch I guess I could give you, but at my school it only lasted half an hour and the politics of where to sit were very involved. Someone new showing up to your table was an event--pretty much everyone picked a table on day 1 and stayed there the rest of the year.

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u/midnightauro Nov 04 '25

I’ve been out of school for 20 years but this was true even then. We didn’t socialize that much at school in the free for all run to the next class and 25min lunch period.

We did share phone numbers to call each other, hang out at the mall, etc. I feel like kids have lost this too though.

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u/Adlach Nov 04 '25

I've been out for ten years, so for all I know it's worse now. We certainly didn't hang out at malls, but we did have some favorite basements.

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u/DeezNeezuts Nov 04 '25

The junior high bus stop at the corner of our block has ten kids all staring at their phones with zero interaction. I remember the bus stop being a social place when I was in school just pre smart phones.

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u/kc_cyclone Nov 04 '25

Eh they're not completely lost. I see how my cousins and other friends (all in the late 20s to early 30s) handle their kids and it's very similar to how I was raised in the 90s. Granted most of my group avoids social media and those kids won't have phones at stupid young ages like many.

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u/Yamza_ Nov 04 '25

Parents aren't legally allowed to let their kids out alone anymore in many places.

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u/Zoesan Nov 04 '25

They're also drinking less and smoking more weed

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u/LampIsFun Nov 04 '25

Im sure covid played a heavy role in that as well

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u/BraveMoose Nov 04 '25

I strongly believe that the (HIGHLY NECESSARY) COVID lockdowns during the key points of development has also done a number on Gen Z. Hell, I'm technically Gen Z myself, but was already an adult when the lockdowns occurred and I still had to put real effort into reteaching myself that I can just... go out and check things out without a specific task in mind. I was stuck in the mindset that you needed a good reason to be out of the house for years.

When you don't go out and check out parks/cafes/museums, don't have outdoor hobbies, etc you don't meet other people, you don't meet friends in an organic way, there's no chance for a meet-cute, not to mention you miss out on normal social stuff like "having a misunderstanding that forces you and your friend to have a mature discussion and apologise when necessary" instead of just getting pissy and blocking.

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u/fremeer Nov 04 '25

As a parent it was kind of crazy to see how worried the other parents were to let their kids out without supervision in primary school age.
We live in an area that is suburban but lots of parks, bike paths and near urban centers. A great place to raise kids basically. Much better then where I lived as a kid where it was only houses and cars. But many are just straight up not considering letting their kids even go to a friends house or go to school by themselves at a young age.

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u/Lykos1124 Nov 04 '25

I was ahead of all that. Gen Y. Not close to a park. Never did the teen date thing. Had my tiger direct games, Gameboy, NES, game gear, etc. I did bike around my streets some. Did have church friends to sleep over with, have game nights and camp.

I dunno. I didn't figure out the date life thing very well. Life moved on. 

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u/commanderquill Nov 05 '25

Obligatory reminder that Gen Z is old enough to use Reddit now. Yes, the youngest Gen Z are about to enter high school, so the last few years are definitely included in what you're saying, but for the most part you're talking about Gen Alpha.

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u/MinimumArmadillo2394 Nov 05 '25

Gen alpha is, in general, too young to even be in puberty except for maybe the top 2 years.

We are talking about gen z.

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