Dane McMillan | Staff Writer
On Thursday, Feb. 6, members of the Eta Omicron Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Inc. hosted the program, Sex in the 21st Century. Throughout the event the perspectives of college students of past decades were compared to those of college students today. The program presented the idea that advancements in technology have made the way college students think about sex much different from the way college students did during the 80s and 90s.
Nowadays, nearly everyone has a cell phone, a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the list goes on. Our parents’ generations didn’t have personal cell phones or the help of the Internet to stay in contact with their partner (or partners) at any given hour. Social media allows us to stay in contact with anyone–no matter where they’re located. This allows for some of the more promiscuous behaviors that young adults are often prone to partake in, to be much more widespread and commonplace.
Another difference between our generation and our parents’ is that today has made people seem much more numb to the idea of sex in the media. On any given day, you can flip on the TV and watch a commercial with nothing more than a girl in a skimpy bikini lying half naked on the beach, only to find out that the commercial is just advertising a burger. Sex sells, and since it’s literally everywhere now, we have become much more exposed, and most importantly desensitized to it at a younger age. You can find videos on Facebook and Vine of little kids twerking and grinding on each other. It just goes to show that what we do now can have a huge impact on future generations.
Sex is everywhere, kids are more exposed to it at a younger age and having it as well. This will and has already, caused the concept of a relationship to take on a much different meaning, complete with different stipulations than in prior years. In our parent’s generation, sex, as well as relationships in general, were much more sacred. For us, it’s almost as if sex doesn’t mean anything other than a sign of achievement. It will be interesting to see what will happen when we all grow up and have kids, and what values we will instill in them, knowing that it may very well be much different for them than it was for us.
Although we may never truly know what the perspectives were like in previous years, it might not be fair to say that it is so entirely different. Just because sex is a huge part of society and technology has allowed us to be more connected it doesn’t mean that our parents weren’t just as sexually motivated as we seem to be now. And even if they were, would they tell us? Would you even want to know? It may be easy for us to say that we’re going to make sure our kids don’t turn out to be like a lot of the people out here today, but I’m sure once that moment comes when you’re looking in your child’s eyes, preparing to have “the talk,” you’ll be surprised at what you choose to hold back.
