I was having a conversation with a close friend of mine about a specific college party. To my dissatisfaction, she texted me with the simple message, "yes, everyone was hooking up with everyone at the party. It's just what people do nowadays."

What a sad thing to hear. Not only is hooking up something one may see on a college campus regularly, it is considered the norm. Hooking up, as viewed from the millennial generation, is viewed as something you do in order to avoid relationships, strict dating, or relational commitment. Because, what the heck is commitment anymore, right? Who wants that?

Instead, the millennial generation is limited to surfacey hook-ups, "talking stages," dating apps, mixed up gender roles, and ghosting one another when things get "too serious." Dating is dead.

Dating is dead because no longer are we searching for someone to spend the rest of our lives with. Instead of intimacy and a close communion, we are more prone to distanced relationships. We do not want intimacy, but freedom. We want freedom to do whatever we want with whoever we want, instead of the embracing amazing privilege of calling--one person and one person only--yours.

Dating is dead because men are not men and women are not women anymore. Women are pressing the equality issue, which diminishes the need for men to pursue. Instead of taking her out to dinner, you're sitting on your couch texting her about how she means so much to you. Sad thing is, you've never actually gone out to know who she is. Women hold up their own doors, while men stand back completely.

Dating is dead because nobody goes on dates anymore. Where instead, the phrase, "let's hang out," is abused. Unlike common belief, although, "hanging out," is not a date.

Dating is dead because in the millennial generation, being intimate physically and emotionally with as many people as you want is considered okay, as long as you aren't in an "official" relationship. She may think she's yours, but you secretly have many on the side.

Dating is dead because we limit dating to swiping left and receiving hundreds of matches. You think he's cute, he thinks you're cute. Swipe left. Match. This is dating now. Dating is no longer noticing a cute girl in a coffee shop, approaching her, and asking her out to dinner. Instead, dating is bounded to shortsighted iPhone apps and online dating programs.

Dating is dead because proper communication is non-existent. Phones, computers, texting, and technology has helped further communication as a whole, yet has delimited dating to a few simple "goodmorning" or "goodnight" text messages. Instead of taking the precious time to get to know someone, we give what we want, and take what we can get. We no longer take the appropriate amount of time to get to know someone; because a few texts here and there, and maybe a four-minute phone call at night is considered communication, right?

I'm a millennial college student, and while I believe the kind of dating the generations before me happily experienced, is dead, it doesn't have to stay this way. While I wish I could have grown up in the generation where women embraced femininity and men were excited to pursue a woman, I'm not. All I can do is embrace what is now, and hope that it will change.

Dating may be dead, but it doesn't always have to be.