Hookup culture is something our generation gets a lot of heat for, but I argue, if you’re being safe and honest, it may actually a great thing for us millennials. A character, Leif, in the HBO show Crashing recently said to a friend post-hookup, “Making love is making love! There’s more of it now for us today to share!” While it does have its downsides, I choose to look at the positive in this article and take Leif’s perspective.
The Hookup Survey
I was recently inspired by a video on the Cut YouTube Page entitled “100 People Describe Last Time They Had Sex.” I was so inspired that I felt compelled to perform a similar “research project” right here on the campus of The University of Pittsburgh. I sent this survey out about a week ago to some of my peers and I’m here with the results everyone’s been waiting for.
I also choose to include those who have significant other who they may or not be monogamous with in addition to the stereotypical “random hookup.” Some people wrote in the comments that they weren’t sure if their responses were necessary or viable for a look into Pitt’s Hookup Culture, but I absolutely here for it. A hook up is a hook up. Part of this was seeing what that term meant to people and that meant getting as all-inclusive a look as possible
Disclaimer 1: Obviously if all 18,000 undergraduates answered, this would be a more valid viewpoint, but I tried to send it to a variety of clubs and organizations to get a clear look as I could in a weeks’ time.
Disclaimer 2: There are SO many more questions I could ask regarding this topic, but I wanted to stick to some basic ones for this particular article.
Without further ado, here are the results!
The Results of the Survey
So as you can seem the majority of people who took the survey identify as female at 66.3%, 30.1 % as male, 2.9% as they, and 1% as other.
Conversely, the majority of the people who participants hooked up with were male at 68.9%, then female at 28.2%, they at 1.9% and I’m not sure at 1%.
Unfortunately, I can’t provide data for what ages hooked up with what ages, but as you can see most notably 37.3% of participants are #twentyfun.
Far more of a range here, 18-3, but the highest percentages are again 20-22.
So, I couldn’t display the full results for this one because some participants wrote their name and other details in the “other” section. I’m sure our grandparents and even our parents would be very confused about the amount of options provided. I provided 8 options and an “other” section. In the other section most responses were some derivative of friend but not “friends with benefits.” I think this question in itself is one of the most frustrating aspects of Hookup Culture. The dreaded “what are we?” question is even worse than it used to be, because of the plethora of options available. And, like Costco’s business plan teaches us we actually don’t like many options. However, having all these options does allow for 1. More opportunities for lovin and 2. If you commit to Significant Other, it’s because you really feel something, not just because it’s the only label available.
Other notable items: Significant Other and Random Hookup tied for most votes.
Cathy Club! MAJOR PROPS.
This answer wasn’t easily reportable, so I’m gonna’ sum it up.
Most people said night. Some people said morning and a few said day. Some provided dates ranging from “Night today lol” to “to “9/3/17 – night” to “Sometime in October, afternoon.”
One person wrote, “dont judge me for not having sex in so long its long distance”, which I definitely think is a critique I have of Hookup Culture. This expectation of sexual freedom often shames people not “taking advantage” of the plenty of fish attitude that shows like Jersey Shore deeply perpetuate. Judgment free zone girl ;)
I added another section as well to this question and the one answer that was added said “All of the above and more (two sunglasses emojis). No anal though.”
I appreciate you.
This one also was a mess visually because there was such a wide range of responses. 60% were sober. The other 40% answers ranged from “Everything,” “I was, he was not. Alcohol. Lots of it.” “A little off that drank,” “weed, wine”
Vibe lighting ftw 37.3 %
Incredible.
It is also notable that this and the next may not be relevant because maybe it was a DFMO (Dancefloormakeout), maybe you count a peck on the lips as hookup, OR maybe cause climax wasn’t the goal of this hookup, which is not as revolutionary as it may seem. I definitely should have had an “I don’t know” category for this one, and for that I apologize.
SEE, older folk who don’t think we can communicate, 43.7% of next day communication were in person so HA.
And lastly…
Some notable responses:
“Great survey. Great hook up. 10/10 recommend both.”
“He is a douchebag satan.”
“He left when I said I wanted to go to bed…and had a tattoo of a tooth on his butt. Probably not relevant info but hope you got a chuckle…”
“If it a hookup if its with your boyfriend? idk friend.”
“I have a consistent friends with benefits because I am uncomfortable hooking up with random people. We have the perfect balance because we are both really comfortable with each other and can go wild but there are also no strings attached. All of the trust and care without the drama!”
“This was very cathartic actually.”
“we met in class and I think I want to smash tonight…to be continued….”
“I hope he says yes when I ask him to date party.”
“I wouldn’t do this again, soberly.”
“We did it because he was taking a job in another state and we wanted to see if it was worth fighting the distance.”
“I love her.”
Thank you to all who participated in this highly necessary survey!
Image Credits: all images were the author’s own