In his blog about hookup culture, Marc Perry refutes the notion that there is a "new or pervasive ‘hookup culture’ among contemporary college students." He makes the point that although sexual behavior itself is not changing, the language surrounding it is much more prevalent in conversations and that sexual partners are more likely to be someone less well know than in the past. That being said, how does that compare to what I have experienced personally on the college campus?
Well, to start out with, I do notice the prevalence of language regarding "hooking up." I hear it when I'm walking through the hallways, sitting in a classroom, or eating lunch. Moreover, the context is not subtle or private. There is definitely an excess of conversation regarding the subject of hooking up.
Occasionally, I will also witness the start of an obviously anonymous hookup, usually late on a weekend night. Although the people involved might not normally view this behavior as appropriate, and it is obviously not well thought out (given the usual temporarily incapacitated mental state of the parties involved), it must happen with a relatively high frequency for me to notice it. However, this is not an accurate measure of its frequency - it is small sample, given the little time I spend around groups of people on the weekend. Either way, hooking up is much less frequent than the talk about it. But, it does show that people will occasionally hook up with people that they barely know.
Even with my limited experiences, I have been able to pick up these trends on the two main types of observations that Marc Perry uses. These two types of observation have lead me to believe that Perry is right about the frequency of hooking up not changing as much as the frequency of conversation and blatancy regarding hooking up.
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