When they say “Netflix and chill,” we all know what that means.
If hooking up is your thing, by all means, it’s your body. But there is no denying that we are the generation that forgot how to properly date. Unemotional, unattached sex has become so prevalent for our generation and that’s seriously unfortunate.
Sex isn’t something to be shameful of. Really, I get it. All of us need a sexual release, it’s only human. The thing is now, we skip the story and go straight to the juicy part: sex. Casual, no-strings-attached sex has dominated our generation and redefined dating for us.
Growing up as a child, I had high hopes and anticipation for a romance to spring up around my twenties (possibly stemmed from indulging in too many romance novels). During my unorthodox years as a college student, I hoped for a genuine relationship, which seems like finding a rare gem in a heap of plastic, acrylic ones.
Relationships have become so belittled that I don’t even want to pursue one, not in this society. “Is Hooking up Bad for Young Women?” a study conducted by a group of university sociologists, confirms that 91 percent of college students agree that their lives are dominated by hooking up.
Romantic prospects are not in our favor with so much emphasis on hooking up. Don’t expect that quintessential dinner date. Students confess that they have been on fewer than two genuine dates in a year, according to a University of Texas study. That’s pathetic, really. There is no denying that monogamous relationships have suffered, and hook ups have increased in value.
To say that hooking up isn’t superficial would be a flat out lie. You don’t want to hook up with someone you don’t find physically attractive, right? We have developed from engaging someone attractive in public and getting to know them, to swiping photos of people left or right, skipping their personalities with our fingertips.
Tinder, aka “the dawn of the dating apocalypse” according to Vanity Fair, is one of many “dating apps.” It is easily accessible and gives the user a pool of oversexed fish to choose from. Technology has made it effortless for us to access meaningless sex.
Okay, so how are hook ups really satisfying? What are the repercussions of getting your fix? The aftermath of a one-night-stand leads to awkward next morning backlash. How does sleeping with someone and peacing out sound satisfying at all? Are people like, “Thanks for the sex, see you never?” Because that basically sums it up.
Waking up hungover and finding myself next to some affluent man in his late twenties, on top of his inherited yacht isn’t how I anticipated the romance in my college era to be — as thrilling as that may possibly sound for others. I guess I wouldn’t have figured out how much I don’t want to hook up now without actually having a history of hooking up.
Richie Rich wasn’t a stranger, but that didn’t make it less awkward. It blows my mind at the thought or the action of hooking up with a someone you don’t know much about, or even a stranger. How can you give someone your body without even knowing their last name, or their career or hobbies? That’s some awkward shit to me, trust me. At least know their favorite color, jeez.
Was younger me shooting for the stars to think that people would be interested in getting to know me without taking my clothes off? Real dating seems so far fetched, seeing how things are in this generation. Sex is sex and will, of course, remain constant in society. Some of us have to wait to settle in a relationship after we graduate, maybe after everyone is sexually gratified and exhausted.
