Chapter Summary

Our class decided that it was important to include the social media and communicative side of hookup culture in this book as it is of high importance to majority of the people who engage in hookup culture. Social media has always been the epicenter to showing the world who you are. In hookup culture, it is seen as a way to stay connected with a stranger you met at a party. Better yet, social media could be the exact way you run into your hookup partner. That brings me to dating applications. Apps like Tinder, Grindr, and bumble are constantly bringing in new profiles of people ready to become a member of hookup culture. The deliberate attention to every detail everyone has on dating apps is what causes the stereotypes to hold true. As humans forming connections, we tend to focus on how a person communicates as a telltale of what business they are in. Things like “ghosting” and “sexting” are becoming more normal to society today. Issues like “catching feelings” arise as a relevant phenomenon across the teenage age group. Common items in between the partners of a hookup scene seem to be alcohol and drugs. Why is this? Well, what would you expect when most college hookups begin at a party or a bar? The venue of the beginning is key in setting the vibe for the night. Fast forward to just before the moment… Do they discuss contraception? Or STDs? That seems to vary across the spectrum.

Throughout this semester we were able to discover many resources from others that have researched similar topics to us in order for us to better understand hookup culture. One major theme that we found is that our category of social and communicative, has probably the largest impact on hookup culture especially with the development of technology. The social and communication aspect of hookup has changed its nature a lot over time. In an article we discovered written by Mel Robbins titled “Has tinder replaced dating in the hookup culture?.” We learned a lot about how our definition of hookup culture is built and based on the ideas that hookup apps such as Tinder have created. This means that our idea of a hookup being able to be so instant and immediate, all you have to do is swipe right a few times and someone will be ready to hookup. Although hook up culture is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries, our social approach to it has developed over time because of the apps and development of technology. We found many articles that enhanced our understanding and another valuable source were different ted talks. One ted talk in particular discussed how apps like Tinder, or bumble, have enabled for the shame to be taken away when it comes to women being a part of hookup culture. Although it is still present, it has become reduced because of the fact that men need the women to swipe on their profile and it cannot be a one way attraction- for tinder specifically. Due to the mass amount of people using these apps, the idea of hooking up has become much more normalized, reducing the shame associated with it. As humans, we all strive to make connections, the apps and many users allow for those brief connections and have allowed for hookup culture to be a popularized phenomenon.