In this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, the results of a study challenge the
idea that “young people are having more no-strings-attached sex than their
predecessors.” While “hooking up” is rampant, it does not appear to be any
worse than in the 1980s. According to the author of the study, the difference
between then and now is that people are less likely date their sexual
partners. Also, this issue has recently been explored in several other scholarly
articles.
As a current college student, it comes as a surprise that
“hooking up” is not more common now than three decades ago. Older generations
seem horrified at the lack of sexual morality they perceive in our generation,
as if it is a recent problem. However, they may be seeing a reflection of their
own college days in the current college generation. I notice how commonplace
premarital sex is among my peers. It is unusual to encounter someone who has had only one sexual partner, and harder still to find someone who is not
sexually active at all. The campus bookstore sells condoms and the waiting
room of the nurse’s office has innumerable pamphlets about various STDs.
Of
course, something has changed. I disagree with the article’s take on that
aspect of this issue. “Hooking up” has become more widely acceptable in today’s
society due to mass media and popular culture. On social media, I have
witnessed people admitting to the intimate details of their sex lives. People freely
confess that they have casual sex with multiple partners, and they have no shame.
The
change in “hookup culture” is not in its existence, or even its extent, but how
it is viewed and discussed. The subtlety that surrounded sex in the 1980s has
been replaced with open awareness and tolerance.
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