I mean, I'm way outside their sphere. I'm 39, ethically non-monogamous, and a swinger.

I do however, live in a rural suburb and use dating apps, an even hooked up with a friend from work (different department than mine) who was also ENM.

I say this all for 2 reasons:

1: there is probably a lot of noise in the system because gen z is experiencing these situations as the first ever generation seeking actual, whole romance (a far cry from me), and from puberty on up. It's quite possible their "prudish" ways seem prudish to others because the novelty quite simply ever existed for them. Their worldview could be markedly different from this alone.

2: though I spend a lot of time online, due to travel and occasionally boring "hurry up and wait" in my time at work, it pales in comparison to the immersion of a lot of gen z. When I get offline, I'm chilling with friends, or with my settled-down life, or I'm out at an event, etc. My daughter's (18) interests, in some way, all revolve around social networks built on 24/7 access. Group chats. Online scheduling. Remote social events, even.

This discrepancy in experience often seems like the cause of this dichotomy between presenting as sex positive and engaging in sexuality. They have different social costs to a Gen Zer

I know that this seems like a lot out of nowhere but I ot this notification while reading the other thread on "gen z isn't banging" so was noodling on it.