Once upon a time, Netflix dates were synonymous with romance, best captured by the viral hashtag #NetflixandChill, a euphemistic suggestion disguised as an invitation to watch TV.
曾几何时，一起看Netflix还是罗曼蒂克的代名词，那条广为流行的标签“#NetflixandChill”（看Netflix并放松一下）完美反映了这一点，那是一种假装要一起看电视的暧昧试探。
These days, the literal chill of the on-demand streaming video service is so great that some young couples call it the new birth control.
而今，作为点播流媒体视频服务提供商，Netflix本身的放松效果如此之好，以至于一些年轻夫妇将其称为新型节育工具。
Consider this recent episode: Tony Lozzi, 35, tucked his children into bed and went downstairs to find his wife, Amber, streaming Netflix. She had been trying to get pregnant again, and he was in a romantic mood.
想象一下这衍生出的最新剧情：35岁的托尼·洛奇把孩子们哄上了床，下楼发现妻子安珀在看Netflix视频。她最近一直想再孕，而他此时兴致勃勃。
She made a counterproposal. “Or we could watch ‘The Prophet,’ ” she said, referring to an animated movie based on a book by Lebanese-American author Kahlil Gibran.
但她迎头泼了盆冷水。“不如我们看《先知》(The Prophet)吧，”她说，那是一部基于黎巴嫩裔美国作家纪伯伦(Kahlil Gibran)的书改编的动画电影。
“I’m a mom,” the 31-year-old digital-marketing strategist explains. “I literally just want to Netflix and chill. We stop there.”
“我是个妈妈，”这位31岁的数字营销策略师解释道。“我确实只想看着Netflix放松一下。我们没做别的事。”
Demographers have lots of theories about why the U.S. fertility rate recently hit an all-time low, ranging from the aftereffects of the recession that followed the financial crisis to the broader use of long-term birth control. It is hard to ignore, anecdotally at least, the impact of streaming entertainment, popularized by Netflix and available from the likes of Amazon.com Inc., Hulu and HBO.
前不久，美国的生育率触及历史最低水平，人口学家对此给出了各种各样的解释——金融危机过后经济衰退的影响，长期节育措施的普及，诸如此类。不过至少从逸闻趣事的角度讲，我们很难忽视流媒体娱乐的影响，Netflix为这类娱乐方式的风靡立下了汗马功劳，亚马逊、Hulu和HBO等公司也纷纷加入了进来。
A 2017 paper in “Archives of Sexual Behavior,” which revealed that Americans were having less sex, on average, than they did three decades ago, offered streaming video as one possible culprit.
《性行为档案》(Archives of Sexual Behavior)期刊上一篇2017年的论文指出，与30年前相比，美国人的平均性生活频率在降低，而流媒体视频可能是罪魁祸首之一。
Dr. Jean Twenge, the lead author and a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, says in the old days a favorite TV show was done at 10 p.m. sharp and commercial breaks gave people an excuse to talk to their partners.
论文的第一作者、圣迭戈州立大学(San Diego State University)的心理学教授特文格(Jean Twenge)博士表示，过去，人们最喜欢的电视节目在晚上10点整就结束了，而电视上插播广告时，人们也可以转移注意力，和伴侣交谈。
“Now, if you’re watching something streaming, the next episode is immediately available, and there are no commercials where you could look over and say, ‘Honey, you look cute tonight,’ ” she said.
她说：“现在呢，流媒体上的视频一集连着一集，中间也没有广告，你没有时间看着你的伴侣，对她说，‘亲爱的，你今晚好美。’”
Ashley Aranda, a 36-year-old who runs an online business making stationery and lives in Rockville Centre, N.Y., says that at least 25% of the time, she and her husband choose Netflix over sex—despite their wish to conceive a third child.
阿兰达(Ashley Aranda)现年36岁，居住在纽约罗克维尔中心，经营一家制作文具的网上商店。她说尽管她和丈夫打算要第三个孩子，但至少有25%的时间，他们会在Netflix和滚床单之间选择前者。
“There’s always a new episode of ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ” she says. “We get so comfortable with the blankets, and you got a glass of wine going, and one of us usually ends up falling asleep.”
“总是有新一集的《富家穷路》(Schitt’s Creek)放出来，”她说。“我们裹着毯子，喝着红酒，舒服极了，我们之间总有一个人看着看着就先睡着了。”
Trevor and Ronda Race, in their mid-40s, sometimes doff their clothes before streaming at home in Scottsdale, Ariz., though their binge-worthy favorites—including “Narcos,” “Breaking Bad” and “The Ozarks”—hardly help set the mood.
特雷弗·雷斯(Trevor Race)和朗达·雷斯(Ronda Race)现年40多岁，居住在亚利桑那州斯科茨代尔市，他们有时会一边放着视频一边亲热，但一些让人欲罢不能的剧集无助于维持气氛，比如《毒枭》、《绝命毒师》(Breaking Bad)、《黑钱胜地》(Ozark)等。
One in four people said they turned down intimacy in favor of binge watching in the prior six months, according to a March survey of more than 1,000 people conducted by SurveyMonkey for The Wall Street Journal. Among people 18 to 38, the rate is higher, with 36% of respondents saying they opted for streaming video.
今年3月，网络调查公司“调查猴子”(SurveyMonkey)为《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)做了一份调查，他们采访了逾1,000人，其中四分之一的受访者表示在此前六个月内曾经为了追剧放弃亲热。18-38年龄段的比例更高，36%的受访者称曾在流媒体视频和亲热之间选择前者。
Several sex therapists say the problem is bigger than Netflix. Technology writ large, including phones, Instagram, YouTube, Fortnite and anything else people do on the internet, is stealing Americans’ attention.
几位性治疗师称这个问题不只限于Netflix。整个科技领域，包括手机、Instagram、YouTube、《堡垒之夜》(Fortnite)游戏以及人们在网上所做的其他一切都在窃取美国人对伴侣的注意力。
“There has never been a time you could feel more alone with your partner right next to you,” says Dr. Megan Fleming, a clinical psychologist in New York.
纽约的临床心理学家弗莱明(Megan Fleming)博士表示：“如今，与伴侣在一起时，我们会感到一种前所未有的孤独感。”
#NetflixandChill as a pop culture phenomenon peaked in 2015 and faded, according to Google Trends, which tracks searches. Danica Mitchell, a sex therapist in New York, says the connotation of the phrase may have diminished as Netflix’s original series and movies improved in quality, keeping couples glued to their screens rather than getting bored.
据追踪人们搜索热点的谷歌趋势(Google Trends)的数据，#NetflixandChill作为一种流行文化现象在2015年达到峰值，随后开始消退。纽约的性治疗师米切尔(Danica Mitchell)认为，随着Netflix的原创剧集和电影品质的提高，这个标签的暧昧涵义可能逐步流失了，伴侣们不再觉得剧集索然无味，而是会目不转睛地盯着屏幕。
Netflix makes no secret of its desire to dominate every free moment of its 149 million subscribers’ time. Chief Executive Reed Hastings has said one of the streaming service’s chief competitors is sleep.
Netflix毫不掩饰自己想霸占1.49亿付费用户全部闲暇时间的野心。该公司首席执行长哈斯廷斯(Reed Hastings)曾说过，流媒体服务的一个主要竞争对手就是睡眠。
A Netflix spokesman denied any wrongdoing when it comes to the fertility rate, noting that the company’s American subscribers stream an average of just two hours a day per household. “We take pride in being part of the cultural zeitgeist, but getting credit for a decadeslong decline in sex is beyond even our programming abilities,” he said.
Netflix发言人不认为该公司对生育率的下降负有责任，并指出其美国付费用户平均每户每天的播放时长只有两小时。“我们很高兴能成为时代文化精神的一部分，但要说我们对长达数十年的性生活频率下降负有责任，实在太高看我们了，”他表示。
Thanks to Netflix’s global reach, the damping effect appears to be spreading. Around Christmas, Singapore-based Zaira Frank, 31, and her husband were watching “Black Earth Rising,” a war-crime drama on Netflix, when he began dropping hints. She demurred and kept watching.
得益于Netflix的全球影响力，其“节育”效应似乎也在向各地蔓延。弗兰克(Zaira Frank)现年31岁，居住在新加坡。圣诞节期间，她和丈夫在追Netflix的战争犯罪剧《黑土崛起》(Black Earth Rising)，当丈夫做出亲热暗示时，她不为所动，继续看电视。
To combat the lure of media, Ms. Frank, who also has a young daughter, proposed making Thursdays a standing date night with no Netflix or screens of any kind. “It has really helped,” she says.
弗兰克也是一个小女孩的妈妈，为了抵御流媒体的诱惑，她提议在每周四的约会之夜禁止观看Netflix，并禁止使用一切其他屏幕。“效果挺好的，”她说。
Jillian Watson, a 31-year-old in West Kelowna, British Columbia, says she binge-watches shows with her husband at least three times throughout the week, and they have been trying to have a baby for years. “Netflix is not going to get in the way of that,” she says.
沃特森(Jillian Watson)现年31岁，居住在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省的西基洛纳市，她说她和丈夫每周至少有三天会马不停蹄地追剧，而近年来，她也一直在努力怀孕。“我们不会让Netflix成为这方面的障碍，”她说。
Whether Netflix or sex wins the day depends on what Brandon and Niki Howlett are watching.
对于布兰登·豪利特(Brandon Howlett)和妮姬·豪利特(Niki Howlett)来说，选Netflix还是滚床单，主要取决于他们当天观看的内容。
“Right now, we’re in the midst of getting through ‘The Punisher,’ and a lot of that doesn’t really put us in the frisky mood,” Mr. Howlett, 32, says of the superhero drama. “Sex Education,” a series about a teen whose mother is a sex therapist, is another story, he adds.
“最近我们在追《惩罚者》(The Punisher)，看太多这种剧不会让我们有太高的兴致，”32岁的布兰登谈到这部超级英雄剧集时表示。如果是看《性爱自修室》(Sex Education)，就另当别论了，他补充道。后者是一部青春剧，主人公的母亲是一名性治疗师。
Ms. Howlett, a 32-year-old blogger in Springfield, Ill., whose grandmothers had eight and five children, respectively, suggests boredom may have helped boost sexual frequency among prior generations living in the 20th century.
妮姬是一名32岁的博主，住在伊利诺伊州斯普林菲尔德市。她的祖母和外祖母分别生了八个和五个孩子，她说生活在20世纪的前几代人可能因为生活比较无聊，性生活频率才会那么高。
“It was the ’40s and ’50s and ’60s,” she says. “They only had like three channels.”
“那是40、50和60年代，”她说。“当时大概只有三个频道。”