What would you give up for a month to keep your favorite streaming TV service? Of the 983 Americans we polled, more than 1 in 10 said they’d drop sex.
For real? Didn’t sex put the “chill” in “Netflix and chill?” Well, the data is the data, and it’s compelling: 12% of respondents said they’d go celibate for a month to keep streaming TV.
Sex is an expression of love. It’s recreation. It’s self-care. It’s sex, folks—that holy grail of the human experience that most of us chase (sometimes a little too hard). And streaming TV has a stronger allure?
According to some of our respondents, yes.
Man with screwy priorities is oblivious to woman’s signals. (Photo: LipikStockMedia on Freepik)
People who don’t experience sexual attraction, asexual people, represent 1%–4% of the US population.1 But that still leaves 8%–11% of the respondents nixing nookie for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max™, or even Discovery+.
Also possible is that some of these folks are chaste. They might subscribe to more family-friendly streaming services like Frndly or Klowd, where the beast with two backs is banned.
And let’s not forget incels—actually, on second thought, let’s.
Man, empowered, goes his own way. (Photo: Depositphotos)
Don’t feel too bad, Sex. We allowed our 983 respondents to select multiple options, and you weren’t the top choice—you finished 4th in a field of 10. Let’s see what else people said they’d give up for a month to keep their favorite streaming service.
1st Place: Alcohol (29%)
Why not? You still have legal recreational weed in 19 states and medicinal marijuana in 38 of them.2 The party’s not over.
2nd Place: Coffee (21%)
We don’t know a serious coffee drinker who could quit coffee for 30 days. Caffeine withdrawal headaches are nasty. So we don’t need a survey to tell us that, within the first week, 98% of you will snap your remotes in half.
3rd Place: Sleeping in a bed (18%)
Oh, pshaw! Even if you fall asleep in front of the TV every night as we do, few couches beat the comfort of your own bed.
The rest of the field
Screen addiction is a bigger problem than we thought. Besides booze, java, comfort, and making whoopee, our survey respondents indicated they’d also give up these things:
- 5th place: Talking to friends (9%)—Real talk . . . Do you have friends?
- 6th place: All food except beans (5%)—Well, beans are high in fiber, folates, iron, magnesium, potassium, protein, and zinc, which makes them good for controlling diabetes, heart health, and weight.3 Plus, we hear beans can carry a tune.
- 7th place: Pet (3%)—Okay, make a TikTok where you tell your doggy your plans. Now apologize to them for even considering this.
- 8th place: Brushing teeth (3%)—Er, uh . . . Do you even brush, bro?
- 9th place: Car (3%)—We get it: working from home rules.
- 10th place: Cell phone (3%)—We all need to put these down.
That’s all very interesting, yes? But we understand if you’re still stuck on the sex thing. We guess some Americans just prefer Sex Education, Masters of Sex, and Sex and the City to, ya know, the real deal.
Endnotes
- Tori Bianchi, Western Washington University, “Gender Discrepancy in Asexual Identity: The Effect of Hegemonic Gender Norms on Asexual Identification,” Spring 2018. Accessed August 24, 2022.
- Dan Avery, CNET, “Marijuana Laws by State: Is Weed Legal Where You Live?,” August 8, 2022. Accessed August 24, 2022.
- Christine Mikstas, WebMD, “Why Beans Are Good For Your Health,” August 30, 2021. Accessed August 24, 2022.
