Hooking Up vs. Dating

By: Gabriela Borzachini

Hooking up has become a trend nowadays for the youth and especially college students. Many young people find hooking up easier than dating because you do not have that feeling of being tied down emotionally and physically to one person. Before I go into too much more detail it is important to define what both hooking up and dating are and how they are different from one another. A hook up is an encounter where the persons involved are not in a romantic relationship with one another and they engage in some sort of sexual act. Sometimes such acts can be as little as making out, but everyone I seem to ask about this has a different opinion. In my opinion, making out can be considered as a hook up. Often times making out will result into much more than sucking face. In a hookup there is a mutual agreement that there is no romantic relationship formed because of said hookup. However, it is possible that a relationship could happen down the line but that is not what is intended. Hookups often occur when alcohol is consumed and participants are much more willing to partake in the act when alcohol is involved. That is why hookups are much more common in college settings, parties, and bars or clubs. Hookups are not meant to have any emotional ties or any sort of relationship associated with it. [1]

            Dating is much more different than a hookup. In my personal opinion, dating is when you are in a romantic relationship with someone to the point where you go out on dates and hang out with each other and are labeled as boyfriend/girlfriend. There are differences in the definition depending on whom you ask. Some people may describe dating as going out on a couple of dates but not necessarily something serious. Others may look at dating in the same way that I look at it. [2] Either way you look at it, dating is much different that hooking up in the sense that hooking up is more for sexual purposes with no emotional ties. Dating can still involve sex and usually does but in my opinion one should only be having sex with the person they are dating if they are in a relationship. In my terms of dating if one person has sex with another person outside of that relationship then that is considered cheating. If you look at dating as going on a few dates and getting to know someone better but not labeled as in a relationship then I would not consider seeing other people as cheating.

            Whether one, hooking up or dating, is more favorable over the other is a matter of opinion. Some people no matter how old would rather have a series of hookups than getting into a committed relationship, while others might prefer to settle with one significant other. Either way, these two terms are very different from one another and one should know the difference between the two before getting into one of these with another person or people.

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[1] Garcia, Justin, and Chris Reiber. Hookup Behavior: A Biopsychsocial Perspective. PhD diss., Binghamton University, 2008. http://shell.newpaltz.edu/jsec/articles/volume2/issue4/NEEPSgarciareiber.pdf.

[2] Booth, Jessica. Gurl.com, "What Is Dating?! A Lesson From Taylor Swift (Sort Of)." Last modified March 05, 2013. Accessed January 31, 2014. http://www.gurl.com/2013/03/05/what-is-dating/.