Millennials, born 1981 to 1987, are not ruining dating, they are simply changing the way the game is played by changing the techniques of dating. The baby boom generation, born 1946 to 1964, along with Generation X, born 1965 to 1980, claims that the newest generation into the arena have corrupted and ruined the entire dating hemisphere, according to a Jan. 6 Mel Magazine article, a sex and relationship magazine. However, millennials are pushing back and proving there is no normality when it comes to dating and sexual relationships.

Dating in college has drastically changed from monogamous relationships to students taking a more casual approach to dating. It has been proven that college students do prefer a short-term more casual approach to dating, but not because they want to sleep around, but because the students would rather focus on their academic and career goals, according to Campus Explorer article, a campus database.

Gen X and baby boomers have said millennials are completely ruining dating with the, “talking stage” and “thing” stage, both being non-exclusive titles, according to a March 2015 Elite Daily article. However, Generation X has the largest divorce rate among the generations. The fact that older generations are disputing the “talking” stage is absolutely ridiculous. It’s smart as a millennial to not rush into a marriage; if anything, the talking stage gives college students the ability to find out what they really want and find themselves in a marriage that will last.

“I am 21 years old; why am I being rushed into something I don’t want to be in because older people tell me I should? I’m not ruining what dating should be because I want to take my time. Older generations just don’t get it, and I don’t expect them to,” said Gabriella Masood, senior journalism major.

Millenials have yet to get married compared to the 48 percent of the baby boomer generation that were already married by the age of current millenials, according to the March 2014 Pew Research Center Millenials in Adulthood report. Divorce is on the rise for older generations as we wait to marry, so their opinion should not matter to the younger generation when it comes to whom they should love and how fast they should be falling in love.

“This comes down to the students having the opportunity to explore what’s right for them. What’s right for them in a relationship, what’s right for them in their academic and career goals,” said Molly Holmes, director of the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. “Because of social media, students question the system of relationships,” Holmes said.

As of 2017, 76.1 million millennials have a social media account, according to a Statista poll. With that many people using social media, Holmes hit the nail on the head when she said social media is a factor in the modern relationship. Social media depicts relationships differently across the spectrum stating whether monogamy is normal or not and how many sexual partners are acceptable, which results in confusion of what’s normal in today’s society.

For the skeptics who might say millennials chose to avoid relationships to sleep around and have sex with more partners, here’s some facts. Millennials are less sexually active than both Generation X and the baby boomers and also have fewer partners, according to a research published Aug. 2016 in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. Seems to me millennials are actually changing the dating game for the better, and maybe the elders should take some notes.