By Valeria Vaquera
“Hookup culture refers to a culture built on the approved practice of engaging in hook-ups or sexual encounters between two or more individuals where it is understood that commitment, relationships, and emotional feelings are not expected outcomes.” -Encyclopedia
Most teenagers are getting lost in hookup culture causing them to keep chasing that physical excitement. Lust is purely sexual attraction while love is both passionate and compassionate.
Hookup culture is causing teens to get confused about what they are actually searching for. Teens want that feeling of having someone to love, having someone to share memories with at a young age, someone that they could grow up with. Although everyone around us tells us the love we have for our significant other isn't real or is “just a phase.” All of this I believe goes hand in hand with hookup culture.
Most teens never had the “bees and the birds'' talk with their parents. Sex was just something ignored by both the teens and parents, not talking about it allowed the teens to go on and discover it on their own with no knowledge of it. Usually, when they discover sex it becomes the most important thing in their relationship making it solely a sex-driven relationship. This is usually the part of the relationship where it tends to get “toxic” or “unhealthy.” Both of these teens want more, not knowing how to express their feelings toward one another. If we’re doing what everything else is doing this has to be right, right?
Hookup culture is also enforced usually by friends, sex isn't something that holds great value anymore, it's just something that everyone does for fun. So why not do it? According to the National Library of Medicine, both engaging in hookups and the number of hookup partners are related to greater symptoms of depression and anxiety. We engage in these sexual acts trying to find a thrill, but end up getting left with a greater void in us, where we end up feeling even more lonely at the end of it.
Senior Veronica Sedano states, “Hookup culture basically took up our generation, basically what our generation is known for is just hooking up and not taking people seriously, it’s sad. I also think it depends on how you were raised, if all you know is hookup then that's what you are going to be guided towards, if you don't know anything about actual love it would be really easy to get involved in that.”
Today I had an experience with one of my guy friends debating if sexual intercourse had meaning or not. The first time we had this conversation he was around his friend, and he kept disagreeing with me saying anything involving sex was not important to him. The second time we had the conversation alone he kept agreeing with me saying it was important to him.
I asked him why he would not speak up about his opinion of his friend, and he ended up telling me his friends have that hit-it-and-quit mentality. So in this generation, we have people afraid to let their supposed “friends'' know how they actually feel, and we have teens hooking up without strings attached leaving them feeling lonely at the end of it.
Is this really how we want to keep living as teens?
I agree that hook-up culture is kind of taking away any meaning that sex used to have; call me old-fashioned if you wish, but I think that the whole point of sex is that it's something you do with the one you love most, and some who you trust emotionally and physically. If you have sex just for the sake of sex, then I honestly feel like you aren't getting what should be the best part out of it, which I feel like the best part of it is that emotional connection you feel with your partner during it.
I agree that hookup culture has changed the way our generation views love. It is no longer seen as a beautiful connection that two people have built it has become the physical interactions they share. Now people would rather just go through many partners looking for excitement and when they lose it the move on. It has created a "toxic" normality that makes themselves lonlier and hurts others in the process.
I agree, hookup culture has completely took over what used to be the dating scene, personally I feel it stems from teens trying to grow up fast and like you said that yearn to fall in love. I think teens in general are just too impatient & hookup culture gives them something to bounce off of pretty consistently .
I agree that hookup culture has messed our generation and teens as a whole. People take sex so lightly and play around without realizing how bad it is for them. It leaves people feeling empty in the end and craving real love. Regularly hooking up with people can also affect a person's relationships in the future and how they view relationships in general. This act should be done with only someone special and who is committed to the relationship.
I agree that hookup culture has changed and mixed up the viewings of sex. Hookup culture has definitely a different perspective on how people view sex, which can be a bit harming to one's thoughts on sex. I like how you wrote, "Hookup culture is also enforced usually by friends, sex isn't something that holds great value anymore, it's just something that everyone does for fun." Which is true it shows how people nowadays just do it for fun instead of the meaning of it.