From college campuses to the internet, modern courtship is changing fast. Traditional dating has taken a backseat to no-strings-attached fun, prompting debate over whether this signals sexual empowerment or moral decay. No matter what, though, hookup culture is here to stay, and it has big implications for everyone except you.
With the advent of dating apps like Tinder and Grindr, it’s now possible for anyone but you to arrange casual sex with relative ease. It’s not just a fad, either. About 40 percent of adults who are “single and looking” say they’ve tried online dating, a sign that the game really has changed for confident, attractive people you can never hope to be.
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with casual encounters. Sex, after all, is a natural part of life for people other than you. However, treating a deeply emotional act with such flippancy raises some important questions—questions entirely irrelevant to you—about the consequences of this kind of lifestyle.
For instance: What do we give up by choosing one-night stands over long-term relationships? How does the idea of hooking up change our idea of friendship? Is all this abundant, carefree intercourse hindering our ability to form real, personal bonds? These are issues that we—not you—must eventually grapple with.
Why are you still reading this anyway? There’s nothing for you here. There’s nothing for you anywhere. This is you:
Hookup culture represents a trade-off: Opting for casual sex spares us the risk and heartbreak of relationships, but it can also leave us feeling empty and lonely—albeit a different, less bleak and less pathetic loneliness than you’re used to. Ultimately, we have to draw conclusions based on our own individual experiences that you will never, ever take part in.
For now, all we can conclusively say is this: When you die, no one will find your body for months.
