Connelley, Cole: Sexual Heath

            The discussion of college campus “hookup culture” is a topic that has been and will be talked about for many generations. A moral panic has struck many because they believe that young people are having more sex with partners with whom they have no relationship than their predecessors did. Are there major changes in sexual behavior to support this new “hookup culture” among college students? That is an excellent question that must be discussed.

            To begin, Martin Monto, a professor of sociology at the University of Portland, found zero evidence of substantial changes. He conducted a national survey of college students who attended at least one year of college over two different time frames. The first period was from 1988 to 1996, and second period was from 2002 to 2010. He found that students in the more recent group are not having sex with more partners or having it more often, and they are less likely to have sex once or more a week. In other words, little has changed. For example, my parents told me stories of how young people behaved during their own high school and college days; it did not differ much from today’s patterns. Young people have and are still having sex outside of marriage. Little has changed; the sexual behavior of young people from the past to recent times is very similar to each other.

            There are some minor changes in the “hookup culture,” however. Fewer students today are dating. They are more comfortable with no-strings-attached relationships. The language and narrative around the term “hooking up” has changed too. The term can now refer to making out instead of having sex. I can easily relate to this because nearly every person in modern society uses the term “hooking up” to refer to any sexual behavior with the opposite sex. “Hooking up” no longer refers to only sex; it can just as easily refer to kissing or simply hanging out. Another change is that more people who have had sex over the past year have admitted this being with a friend or during a casual date. Fewer people are marrying or staying in a committed relationship, and that can be very morally wrong in the eyes of many. I have many friends who will have sex with each other just to have a few minutes of enjoyment. They want something to entertain them, and it does not matter whether it be sex or not. This is very morally wrong in my eyes.

            The term “hooking up” has not changed over many years. The same term was used in the past by young college students and is still used among contemporary college students today. The changes consist in what the term refers to and the increasing number of no-strings-attached sex among young people. “Hooking up” will always be a major topic that many people will have issues dealing with.