Hookup Culture Is a Myth

You know the whole hookup culture of casual sex that's so prevalent on college campuses? Turns out, it's not so prevalent. Or at least, no more prevalent than in an earlier generation, a new study suggests. The key stat: About one-third of college students have had more than one sexual partner in the last year—the same as those surveyed between 1988 and 1996, reports Time. “College students today are not having more sexual partners [after] age 18, more sexual partners over the last year, or more sex than their parents,” says a sociology professor at the University of Oregon that led the study.

Some other findings, from Yahoo News:

• 77% of today's students reported having a "spouse or regular sex partner," down from 85% in the earlier group. So, yes, a decline in regular partners, but it's still true that most students are having sex as part of a relationship.
• Fewer contemporary students report having sex weekly or more often (59%) compared to the earlier group (65%).
• About the same number of modern students (50.5%) say they have had more than two sex partners since turning 18 as the earlier group (51.7%).

Click for one writer's full-throated agreement that hookup culture does not exist. (More hookup stories.)