Our society is more connected now than it ever has been in the past. Never before have we possessed the ability to connect with people all over the world at our fingertips. As a result of this constant connection, we sometimes feel a fair amount of pressure to make such connections. This pressure especially displays itself in the way that our society views hooking up.
Text messaging, Tinder, Bumble and Grindr are a few of the easy and prevalent tools for finding hookups that are available to students. With all of these options, it has become almost expected to utilize them, and if you don’t use them then your chances of meeting people may diminish and you might feel left out.
While many people do still meet through face-to-face contact, it is becoming more and more common to find your match by simply swiping through a list of potential partners, scrolling through a webpage or talking to people in an online chat room. Making connections this way can feel as though no “real” connections are made at all. In essence, it can feel like attempting to make a connection in spite of a disconnection.
This disconnection can make you feel obligated to simply hook up with somebody, as opposed to first forming a deeper connection. After all, how can one make a proper romantic connection without really knowing their partner, especially when the immediate sexual option exists?
This gets to the heart of what drives certain technology to perpetuate hookup culture. These apps and websites offer the simple options—those easy, sexual encounters that make it seem too tiresome to pursue something more personal.
That isn’t to say that these are the only interactions created by these resources. Every person who uses them has a different idea of what they’re looking for. Furthermore, each person will get something different out of it.
There is always that pressure and expectation, however, to use Tinder, Bumble, and Grindr to find a new person to sleep with. Some people go along with the pressure, while others do not. Both options are completely fine, as everyone can pursue their own interests in whatever fashion they prefer.
To some people, though, the pressure to hookup can be too much. They may view the pressure as something to be avoided: something that can make you feel like a performer in a one-act play—one that will end with its two characters going their separate ways, never to talk again.
It takes being honest with oneself to successfully navigate the possibilities technological connections can offer. Dating apps can be both a platform to meet potential partners, or a recipe for a romantic disaster.