Dr. Ruth worries loneliness on rise
Famous sex therapist warns social media is hurting people’s ability to form relationships
The Sunday Telegraph
America’s most famous sex therapist has warned that social media is propelling millennials into a future of loneliness in which they will have difficulty forming lasting relationships.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, universally known as “Dr. Ruth,” said she was deeply concerned that young people would not find marriages that lasted.
She excepted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, saying the royal newlyweds were clearly so in love they were one of the few couples that did not need her advice.
“Of course I watched the royal wedding because I am very interested in relationships,” said Dr. Ruth.
“But I would say Harry and Meghan do not need my advice. I could tell from the way they looked at each other, they’re not going to need Dr. Ruth!
“I think it’s fantastic that the royal family now has a beautiful biracial bride. Who would have thought it? I never thought I would live to see that, and I’m so glad to see it.”
But she added: “It’s much more difficult these days to keep a relationship going — and it’s because of the internet. It gives people unreasonable expectations, like that a Prince Charming will come riding in on a horse.
“Meghan is lucky, a Prince Charming did walk into her life, but I’m very concerned about those who are lonely.”
The sex therapist said that addiction to social media meant “loneliness” was going to become a bigger problem than “sexual literacy,” which she used to guide the nation on.
“I’m very concerned about loneliness,” Dr. Ruth said. “People are losing the art of conversation. They’re constantly on their (smartphones).
“You see the couples sit down in restaurants both with their phone on the table. It’s a big problem for the relationships.”
To that end, Dr. Ruth is planning a return to television with a program aimed at mil- lennials. She will have a young, male co-host and has promised to do her best to let him get a word in.
“What the young people need now is a voice like mine, a little bit old-fashioned and square,” she said.
“We need to tell them to put the phone aside, and put their energy into forming relationships. You can’t ignore the phone, that’s the way we live now, but you have to know not to be addicted.”
Dr. Ruth became an iconic figure in the 1980s when she was already in her 50s, with her books, TV and radio appearances during which she dispatched unprecedented bedroom advice to Americans, matter-of-factly using words that had previously been too shocking for mainstream broadcasts.
The German-born dynamo shows no signs of slowing down.
She has two books out, including a new graphic novel-style autobiography called Roller-Coaster Grandma.
It details her extraordinary life which began as an orphan of the Holocaust, escaping from the Nazis as a child on a Kindertransport. She went on to train as a sniper with a Jewish paramilitary group, then emigrated to the U.S. where she went from being a maid to a professor, and eventually a sex therapist.
Recently, she celebrated her 90th birthday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York where, as ever, she was interested in the sex lives ofher350guests.“Itwasjusta fantastic, wonderful birthday” she said.
“Please tell the Queen I will be waiting for the telegram when I’m 100.”