Hookup culture has become much more than just a term to describe casual sex in recent years. It has become what its name implies: a culture.
In years past it was something that was most prevalent on college campuses, however, with dating apps and a changed perspective on dating and relationships, particularly in America, it has become common among established adults in their late 20's and 30's.
But what exactly is this term we hear floating around social media? What is its meaning? Where did it start?
And perhaps the biggest question: Is it destroying our relationships?
What is Hookup Culture?
Hookup culture refers to the general preference of casual sex over long-term relationships.
While there is certainly a time and a place for this, mostly when we are young adults going through college or still trying to find our way in the world, there comes a time when we are best suited looking for a partner to marry and start a family with.
After all, hooking up with people becomes much more difficult when both men and women are older. Most of the people in your age group do indeed end up getting married, and to float around college bars with people who are 10 years younger than you starts to become very sad, very quickly.
So hookup culture is generally a natural progression into adulthood, and a phase we experience before establishing ourselves in our careers and building wealth, family, and values.
The problem is that now it has become a phase we are locked into for far too long. It's not supposed to be something we carry into our adult lives, and it ultimately leads us to feel empty and depressed.
Why is this the case? Well, there is one culprit that we can identify as a driving factor for this way of thinking.
How Dating Apps Encourage Hookup Culture
Traditional dating apps began as a seemingly convenient way to meet people and form relationships, with the idea of finding our life partner.
However, as they became more integrated into our society, they have turned out to be a catalyst for the same addictive behavior akin to social media, with users swiping mindlessly for their next match, and never actually engaging in a process beneficial to the discovery of one's life partner.
Even more, dating apps actually encourage hookups through the very nature of their mechanics.
When we swipe on these apps, we have the illusion of limitless matches, so our interest in conversation and getting to know each other is low. Naturally, we start to just use them as a way to try and quickly meet someone and hookup, with (generally) very disappointing results.
These apps are designed for us to not only fail in finding a long-term partner, but to actually get us addicted to them through random intermittent rewards by way of spontaneous matching and an overall manipulation of our dopamine.
The significant contribution to hookup culture from traditional dating apps is shown in the way we as a society have come to perceive them.
It has become well known that these apps are simply ways to kill time on the toilet or chase an unsuccessful hookup.
The Negative Effects of Casual Sex
Frequent casual sex has proven to not be beneficial to one's mind.
For one, when we engage with someone physically, our brain is doing things that we don't even realize at the time.
The brain is signaling for things like peer bonding and comfort with a partner, which don't get fulfilled during these scenarios. We have to wonder how this affects the brain in the long term, and how it changes the way we behave in future relationships.
In one study done on undergraduates at a University, 78% of women and 71% of men who engaged in casual sex said that they felt regret afterwards.
In another study, over 75% of people who engaged in casual sex reported feelings of low self-esteem afterwards.
So with feelings of low-self esteem and regret being somewhat common amongst men and women who have casual sex, we have to confront the possibilities of this behavior affecting our lives in other areas.
We can also look at the differences between men and women regarding casual sex. For men, they are more likely to have casual sex with a woman who is not their ideal type for a long-term partner. This can start to skew their perception of standards and what they would like in a potential wife.
For women, they may think because a certain type of man was interested in them for a night, that they deserve a man who is simply out of their league, without understanding that he just wanted her for one night.
So while there are still many factors to consider, we can conclude that there are definitely a fair share of negative effects on the brain, and the future behavior of men and women when adopting a lifestyle with frequent casual sex.
How FrostyWave Contributes to Positive Dating Culture
FrostyWave is a dating app designed for people to find their life partner.
When users sign up to our site, they fill out an in-depth questionnaire that prioritizes the qualities they seek in a life partner.
Our AI will then use this information to match them with a set amount of the highest quality matches, so they are more invested in the conversations and relationships they build on our site.
There is no meaningless swiping on FrostyWave. Every match has meaning and is curated to find you the absolute best options to suit your needs in finding a life partner.
With traditional dating apps manipulating users to stay hooked on the app and engage in a never-ending cycle of trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to hookup for a night and distort your perceptions of what a relationship should be, you can rest assured that at FrostyWave, our goal is to find you the person who you truly deserve.
So join FrostyWave now, and get started on a positive journey of finding your soulmate!
To join, click here.
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