Being a 21-year-old female in the middle of the giant hook-up culture can be very frustrating, annoying, difficult, and even demeaning at times. I personally cannot stand our generation's "dating" standards. Well, dating is almost extinct to our generation. I cannot stand the fact that in order to get a guy's attention, you need to make eyes with him and hope he buys you a drink, or you have to swipe right and hope you match. I can't do it. You rarely hear the words "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" anymore, and you can't ever get your hopes up about being in a relationship. Dating is dead. What happened to good ol' dinner and movie date?

I get it, I do. We live in a world where everything is instant. We get instant-gratification from social media, texting, everything is right in the palm of our hands. We get some sort of high off of favoriting a person's tweet or selfie, and hope that they notice your half-assed effort. It's bullshit, in my opinion.

We're afraid to try. We all are so wrapped up in our work, classes, family, and social life that we feel like the slight chance of heartbreak may screw up all of our future plans. I understand, it's terrifying thinking about a person being your best friend, your love of your life one day, and disappearing the next. Just the thought of it can make a person scared, but I think it's paralyzing us from having any shot at true love. And this idea is everywhere, in movies, TV, everywhere on the internet saying that dating is "bad." But I don't think it's bad. It's exciting and worth the effort and work put into it all, in my opinion.

So here's how it goes. He's going to text you, but you can't respond back too fast because that means you have feelings and are desperate. Your communication will be mainly through texting, rarely face-to-face communication. Oh, and if he doesn't text you, you will sit with anxiety until you get that text message back. You'll "hang-out" from time to time, but it's casual. It means nothing. Don't question it, don't push the limits, it's usually on his terms. Don't you dare double text, you'll look clingy. He won't like that. Don't call, you'll look needy. If you take too long to respond, then you're not interested though. It's a fine line. You're with him, but not really with him. But you don't want to show that you have feelings though, you'll scare him. You're not friends, but you're not in a relationship. You're exclusive to each other, but don't mention it in public. You can't be too clingy, but don't you dare be too distant. It's a game, and this is what relationships have come to in 2016. It's a really terrible game that no one wins.

Could you keep up with that? I can't. It's confusing to say the least. And frustrating, like I said earlier. You're not allowed to be interested in other people, but you're not allowed to have feelings either. It's like we have ripped out our hearts and disregard other people's thoughts and feelings completely. It's degrading, demeaning, thoughtless, reckless, and manipulative. We sit in our own pool of anxiety because we're too afraid to talk about true feelings. I can't do it. The amount of time that I've spent questioning my worth because a guy couldn't text me back is ridiculous, and looking at it now I'm ashamed of myself for thinking that way. Don't base your worth off of a thoughtless relationship that's going nowhere.

What's wrong with being invested in another person who you love and cherish? Who doesn't want to have a best friend, a lover, and even possibly a soul mate? That's what I want, but not in this generation. It's like commitment was thrown out the window. And if you're one of the few that are in committed relationships, are happy, and are faithful, I applaud you. It's what I dream of, because I feel like I have so much to offer to another person, and I feel that I love so deeply. I'm worth much more than just a casual hook-up. I believe that I'm worth so much more than letting a guy base his opinion of me off of a picture and determining if I'm worth a swipe right or left.