Are Today's College Students Really Having More Sex -- Or Just Talking About It More?

Consider these works of recent or current college students: a PowerPoint of sexual conquests. A column in the campus newspaper about orgasms. A best-selling book about getting drunk and having one-night stands.

Are today's students sex-obsessed? Or are they just more open about the realities of dating and hooking up on campus? Nightline investigates.

WATCH:

Comments

[mmike1969]

06:58 PM on 10/20/2010

My bet is talking more... Much like how we are doing it here on huffpo! :p

[SangZe]

08:11 AM on 10/20/2010

Talk is cheap.

[Alex Caraballo]

12:20 AM on 10/20/2010

Wow I go to UT that was crazy seeing my campus on there

[Chi--townfool]

05:22 PM on 10/19/2010

Kids are all talk...especially if they never had sex before

[TeeSC]

05:26 PM on 10/19/2010

ESPECIALLY. :-)

[shthar]

05:05 PM on 10/19/2010

What do you think?

Jeez, if this qualifies as journalism no wonder reporters don't get paid anything.

[AxelDC]

02:48 PM on 10/19/2010

It's a lot easier to meet people in college than it is after, so I wouldn't be surprised if people hook up more often.

[Barista]

02:19 PM on 10/19/2010

You gotta be kidding. I went to college in the 60's. It would be humanly impossible to have more sex.

[Chi--townfool]

05:26 PM on 10/19/2010

That sounds like a wager to me

[Barista]

06:03 PM on 10/19/2010

Now that's funny chitown.

[antaeus]

06:26 PM on 10/19/2010

Was public-toilet sex big then?

[Reyeshawk13]

02:15 PM on 10/19/2010

I don't which is true. but I know in the Dark Ages when I was in college there was a whole lot more talking than doing. With my daughter heading off to college next year, it would please me immensely if that were still the case.

[Ravi Abunijad]

10:06 AM on 10/19/2010

Regardless of Tucker Maxx's "ideas" about it or any of Nightline's college-aged interviewees, I'm almost certain that, actually, college students today are having LESS sex, and just talking about it way more. I'm glad Kathleen Bogle was allowed to present that perspective, because it is far more accurate than media depictions of college life. It isn't that there is a means of "accommodating" those who don't subscribe to the hypersexual, drunk-all-the-time lifestyle, I think that's the wrong way of framing it. Most college students do have sex, and most do drink, but almost nobody does that as excessively as this "story" implies. "Dating is dead?" That analysis is so incredibly stupid and inaccurate, just because they found 4 students who agree with it does not make it reality.

This idea that anecdotal evidence = proof is absolutely ridiculous. This type of journalism is obnoxious.

[tonnyb]

11:46 AM on 10/19/2010

Which goes to show how poorly media is serving our need for accurate information, that is to those of us who are looking for accuracy and not just to reinforce our world view.

[Vicki Mabrey]

01:45 PM on 10/19/2010

Um, the piece where you saw Kathleen Bogle, along with the four students talking about the hookup culture, is one and the same. It's also the same piece that described Tucker Max as being the extreme edge of what's happening. So I would say that our story presented several different viewpoints, and in fact ended with the two student journalists saying the hooking up they see makes them "sad"... in addition to giving one student, Dominique, the last word -- that most people want -- and will have -- relationships.

So I'm not exactly sure what you're slamming. It's not as if we at Nightline presented only one viewpoint and you had to go elsewhere to hear another. Everything you're talking about came from our story, including the line that students aren't necessarily having more sex, they're just talking about it more.

[Ravi Abunijad]

06:04 PM on 10/19/2010

If you don't know what my complaint is, why waste time writing a negative response?

I'm neither commending Nightline with adding in Bogle nor contending that they only offered "one side" of the issue. Yes, I was relieved that they at least added in a researcher's perspective on the issue, but that doesn't excuse the journalism approach, which has become quite commonplace these days.

See, the whole point you're missing - the issue I'm "slamming" is manufactured news content based around anecdotal evidence and/or cherrypicked statistics.

If you're going to raise attention or alarm about an issue, particularly one that affects an entire group of people across the nation, then you have a duty as a journalist to offer evidence that something IS happening.

For example, you can't just say "kids across America are killing puppies" and then interview some kids who killed puppies, some psychiatrists, and kids who think it's wrong. You haven't established that something is even actually happening on the scale you've identified (across America), so it's irrelevant that you gathered "all sides" of the issue.

What happened here? The story asks if college students are having more sex these days or just talking about it more - and yet it never actually attempts to answer that question; The story just offers opinions based upon an unsubstantiated statement.

It's one giant logical fallacy, and the fact that people are okay with this journalism shows how completely irresponsible and inept society is becoming.