Hooking Up - New or Not?

I've been hearing in the media recently that college age people don't date any more. They "hook up," which is having sex with someone without even buying dinner. Or people have "friends with benefits," the benefits being booty-call on demand minus the hassles of relationships.

Well these stories triggered my BS alarm. I highly doubt human nature and male-female dynamics have changed that much since I was that age in the 1980s.

Here's what I think:"Hooking up" is a new name for what was known in the 1970s and 80s as "one night stands."

"Friends with benefits" is a new name for what used to be called slutty, loose, promiscious or free love, depending on how judgemental you want to be about it. Further, I doubt the majority of young people hook up or have friends with benefits, and most who do only do it a few times. The men who are hooking up are mostly the fortunate few with the same traits as those guys I used to know who got laid easily.

Everyone else is probably just dating or trying to date, but that doesn't sound in the media as good as "hooking up."

I have the same suspicion about reports that junior high school girls are having oral sex all over the place. When I see these stories on TV, kids are not talking about what they've done. They are tlaking about what they've heard other kids have done. Junior high gossip now replaces sound research.

Comments from those under 30??