Analysis Of College Hook Up Culture And Christian Ethics By Jennifer Beste

When reading the title of one of the colloquia series, "College Hookup Culture and Christian Ethics", I had a certain preconceived idea of what I would expect from this presentation. Personally, I thought the speaker would be an incredibly devout woman who was going to criticize the ways of college students, because current college norms do go against Catholicism. However, the speaker, Jennifer Beste, was understanding of how our culture has transformed and relayed this information in an insightful way. This was not to say she agreed with this new way of college life, but just that times have truly changed from her years in school. From the culture I have experienced thus far this year, Beste's findings were very accurate. Not only was her …show more content…
Personally, the way our culture has developed is alarming and is more destructive than we may think. Not only are we abusing alcohol, but we are using it to break the ice in situations we might not be found in while sober. In response to Beste's points, young adults are afraid to face difficult situations. To protect and shield us from the possibility of rejection, we use substances to try to mask this fear. At many times during the presentation I heard outbreaks of laughter which affirmed much of what Beste was saying is correct and is kind of foolish. As much as this topic was light-hearted at times, the cold truth hit, that partying and hookups are really degrading to a person's self-worth. It is not uncommon for a friend of mine to vent to me about how a guy she had feelings for could not reciprocate. Not all, but a majority of boys in college are not going into a hook-up seeking a long-term relationship or even any connection at all. Hook-ups boost someone's self-esteem briefly, but once sobriety hits in the morning regret and denial may arise. The truth is, people are capable of relationships, it is just fear keeping people from venturing out of their comfort zone. Hooking up with random girls or guys is "easy" but asking someone on a date seems almost impossible to many. We need to learn how to be vulnerable. In relation to Christianity, we need to be vulnerable to God like we …show more content…
As soon as she mentioned this, it was a reminder of what we just learned about in class earlier that day from the Beatitudes. This is stated in the first line, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." This line essentially describes that we are all poor in different ways, but we are all dependent upon God. We should rely on God in all aspects and thus should not act arrogant and self-confident. If we follow in Jesus' footsteps detached from meaningless goods, then we will be blessed by God. However, how this relates to college culture is that students are rejecting this value of detachment. Our culture is shaped to crave materialistic things. We are defined by the things we wear, what we drive, and where we live. However, everything we own is actually in God's possession. Similarly, something that has risen dramatically in recent years is the number of users of social media. Social media goes against God's teaching in many ways. Teens seem to determine their value by the number followers or number of likes they get on a post. God loves us no matter our position in society, thus we should not be distracted by these meaningless "achievements". If God loves you for who you are then why do you need the approval of strangers on the internet? All of our needs and attention can be fulfilled through talking to and living as God would. We do not