Dating in the world of COVID-19 is very different than it used to be.

Some San Luis Obispo High School students participate in “hookup culture.” Hookup culture is when people of various ages use social media to participate in casual hookups and don’t really dabble in the life of dating. 

Almost half of the country’s online users have met or know someone who has met a romantic partner through a dating website or app, according to a 2019 study by Statista, a statistics-gathering site. Ironically, almost all dating apps require the user to be at least 18.

Expressions set out to find out why hookup culture has become so popular, even more so during a global pandemic.

  “Hookup culture is very prominent in today’s society because you don’t have to make a commitment to anyone. This also allows people to keep their options open and not be tied down to one particular person,” said junior Etienne Brennan. 

  Hookup culture has been shown to have gained more popularity over the past months, and the question is why?

According to one online college study, “Nearly 95 percent of survey participants thought that others on campus were looking for one-night stands with no commitment or talking a little first, snapchatting, and hooking up, but not putting a label on anything. When asked what participants were looking for however, 45% of people said they were looking for a relationship.”

  “I think that everyone is hornier now from being in lockdown and it’s like you aren’t allowed to see other people so you want to even more. I also think hookup culture is popular because people are obsessed with getting their body count up and getting that ‘experience’ before college or during it,” said former SLOHS student Jessi Rabbon.

  Sometimes teenagers even use dating apps in order to get in touch with other people, or know people through mutual friends. There is a common term used among teenagers where people have “things.” This is where two people aren’t together but aren’t not together. Having “things” is very common among high school students pre -COVID-19 and now. 

“As with adults, the depression some students experience often comes from a sense of isolation at a time when they’re expected to make new friends and connections,” said student counseling center at N.C. State University Executive director Monica Osburn. 

And many of these students haven’t learned yet how to manage stress on their own, so they go looking online.

  “Hookup culture is so effortless and there are apps where you can literally hookup with someone in 15 minutes, so it makes it easier to do. People aren’t getting the same human interaction they used to get and it makes them feel a lot more alone. Then they turn to the easy way which would be like Tinder, Bumble, etc,” said anonymous senior. 

  Many teenagers participate in hookup culture in one way or another, but should they do it? 

“Coronavirus is upending what we thought were the ground rules of dating in the digital age. Pre-coronavirus, texting someone to set up a date was fine, but calling a person, let alone video-chatting before a date, was tiptoeing toward creepy. Not anymore,” said Tanya Basu in an article for MIT.

Sources:  Defender.smcvt.edu Houstonchronicle.com Technologyreview.com