A strong majority (75%) of Gen Next Americans (18-25 year olds) say today’s youth are more likely to have casual sex than were young people 20 years ago. Only 7% of Nexters say their generation has less casual sex and 17% say they have about the same amount. Gen Nexters offer some other fairly harsh assessments about how their behavior and lifestyle compare with the generation that preceded them. Seven-in-ten Nexters say today’s youth resort to violence to solve conflicts more often than the previous generation. And nearly as many Nexters say they engage more often in binge drinking (69%) and illegal drug use (63%) when compared with their predecessors. Nexters think young adults 20 years ago were more conscientious than themselves when it came to civically-minded activities. Fully 49% of Nexters say their generation votes less often than did the youth of the 1980s. Only 34% of Nexters say their generation votes more than young people did 20 years ago, 14% see no difference. Similarly, 42% of Nexters say they do less community service and volunteering than the generation that preceded them, although nearly as many, 37%, say they do more. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.