Leach, Cameron: Sexual Health

The media seems to be portraying our generation as one that is much more likely to have casual “hookups” rather than be in committed relationships. This is true to some extent, but the media is over exaggerating. The amount of sex that our generation is having is almost exactly the same as our parents’ generation. We are not much different in our amount of sexual partners or in our views on sex. Studies even show that the percentages of college students who have had more than one sexual partner have dropped since previous generations.

 What has changed is the fact that our generation is less likely to get into a committed relationship with someone as quickly as before. Many members of our generation seem to find someone they want to be with for the rest of their lives by having sex with them before they decide whether they want to commit to anything or not. The age that members of our generation get married has also changed. The average age that people marry at has risen higher and higher each generation. Our grandparents’ or great grandparents’ average age of marriage was 12 to 14, while we have risen that age to 27-30 years old. Our generation isn’t just “hooking up” just to do it; this is our generation’s way of testing out a person to see if they will be an appropriate partner. It is a way of “throwing themselves out there.” Every relationship has to begin with some type of test to see whether it will stand up to the test of time anyway. Our generation has just taken that test a step farther. Years ago the test would begin with asking a girl on a date, which then over the years evolved into asking someone if they wanted to kiss you or if you could kiss them, and now it has evolved into asking someone if they want to “hookup.” This is simply evolution of the generations.

Different things become the “norm” over time, and today finding a partner begins with a “hookup”. Romance however, is not dead on the college campus; not everyone in our generation mindlessly has sex with someone just because they feel like it. It is simply a new way of finding a partner than earlier years rather than a whole new era of no strings attached sex.