Men today increasingly dedicate their leisure time to virtual pursuits. Global revenue from video game sales has surpassed the revenues of the music and film industries, combined. Pornography consumption has propelled the sex industry into a multi-billion dollar business, with revenue estimates placing it in competition with major league sports. 

These behavioural changes have been fuelled by social and economic changes: men’s decreased labour force participation, for example, and the dramatic decline in the marriage rate. But they have also become causal: men work fewer hours or spend less time dating because their leisure pursuits have become so dominant in their lives.

What effects are these habits having – on men, on women, and on society? And what does it say about the modern world, that so many people voluntarily plug themselves into a digital Matrix to escape it?

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