Most teens don’t want to watch romance or sex on TV: new study

Teenagers today aren’t the biggest fans of watching love stories in their TV shows and movies.

An annual study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles’ Center for Scholars & Storytellers found that over half of the teenagers who were surveyed prefer watching stories about friendship, rather than romance or sex, in entertainment media.

“Nomance,” has its being called, is in a much higher demander with teenagers than in 2023.

The “Reality Bites: Teens and Screens” survey was conducted in August 2024 and involved 1,644 10-to-24-year-olds participants. People ages 10 to 13 were not asked about sexually explicit content.

63.5% of the total adolescents said they “strongly agree” in wanting to see “more content that focuses on platonic relationships/friendships” in the shows and movies they’re watching.

That number was 51.5% last year.

In the 2024 survey, 10.5% said they “strongly disagree”about wanting to watch more friendship-driven stories — down from the 15.17% last year. 26% said they “neither agree or disagree” in this year’s survey, compared to 33.3% in 2023.

“I think more friendships should be shown. And just because boys and girls are friends doesn’t mean
they have to be romantic,” a 12-year-old white female told the survey this year.

The second statement in the study was: “I feel that sex and sexual content is not needed for the plot of most TV shows and movies.”

Of the 1,644 participants, 62.4% said they “strongly agree,” 16% said they “strongly disagree,” and 21.6% said they “neither agree or disagree.”

Meanwhile, in 2023, less than half of the adolescents (47.5%) were uninterested in watching sex play out on their screens.

“The romance doesn’t need to be the biggest part of the plot,” said a 17-year-old white nonbinary person. “The relationships need to involve less jealousy and the plot shouldn’t fixate so much on the relationship being formed. They really aren’t that dramatic.”

“It would also be awesome to see more diverse groups such as queer people in romantic relationships,” the teen added. “That’s more realistic for the real world and I like seeing more representation.”

The study also found that 46% of participants said they’d like to watch TV/movie characters that lack sexual and/or romantic attraction.

Last year, that number was 39%.

The 2024 “Teens and Screens” survey was authored by research manager Atlas Burrus, research director Dr. Alisha J. Hines, consultant Stephanie Rivas-Lara, and Center for Scholars & Storytellers CEO and founder Dr. Yalda T. Uhls.

It has been conducted annually since 2022.