Is Netflix ruining your sex life?

Netflix has revolutionized the way that we consume video content, with its myriad of original content and system of dropping every episode of a single season of a TV series at once, thus giving rise to binge watching. Indeed, the live streaming service seems to have altered the way couples spend the evening. The Urban Dictionary has a phrase, “Netflix and chill,” which means watch some Netflix and then have some sex.

Netflix and not chill

According to the International Business Times, a study has just been published in the journal Energy Research and Social Science that suggests that Netflix is interfering in couples’ sex lives.

The researchers at Lancaster University in the UK have found that the period of maximum internet usage occurs between 10 PM and 11 PM, the time when couples traditionally have sex before nodding off. The research shows that TV watching occupies the major portion of usage during that time period.

It seems that couples are taking their mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones to bed and are watching Netflix and other content in lieu of having sex before dropping off to sleep. How the phenomenon is starting to affect human relations and intimacy can be only imagined.

The UK Daily Mail notes a warning from Professor David Spiegelhalter, from the University of Cambridge to the effect that the proliferation of connectivity is starting to cause people to have less sex.

The phenomenon seems to have impacted millennials the most with more of that generation having never had sex compared to previous ones.

Clearly, something must be done

Many households have instituted a rule of no devices at the dinner table, the better to facilitate human to human conversation. Perhaps it is time to promote a similar rule of no tablets and smartphones in bed, the better to facilitate human intimacy.

The idea is that couples would choose to have a cutoff time for electronics, say 10 PM. Then, without the distracting stimuli, people will naturally rediscover the joys of getting frisky, an infinitely more satisfying way to pass the time than just one more episode of “The Santa Clarita Diet.” It should be noted that the Hammonds never leave off dealing with Sheila’s particular condition by live streaming video programming.

Perhaps Netflix itself should pitch in on the task of dealing with the problem by running PSAs. “Binge watching can interfere with things that are really important, such as getting intimate. Remember to livestream responsibly.” Thus Netflix can prove itself to be a good corporate citizen.