“You feel like a piece of you has been removed and taken out,” is what a WAHS student said when asked how they felt after sex.

     For the student, sex was something that was a normal part of life and played a major role in their most recent long-term relationship.

     “Every big thing in our relationship happened during intimacy,” they said.   

     Yet one night, that aspect of their relationship changed. The student slept over with their partner in their partner’s car. Earlier in the day, they had discussed having sex that night, but the student changed their mind after feeling exhausted that evening. Though the student repeatedly declines, their partner would not stop saying, “But you promised.”

      On the verge of tears, the student gave in and had sex with their partner while half awake. At that moment, the student describes the way they felt as “dirty” and “gross.” They felt betrayed and hurt that their partner would push them to that point.

      “The [person] that I love would never have done this,” they said.

     The next morning, they proceeded to have sex again, and again, and again, according to the student.

     “It just never stopped.”

     The Whirlwind editorial board chose to conceal this student’s identity to protect them from the potential social and legal repercussions of sharing their personal story. 

    When it comes to romantic high school relationships, experimenting with intimacy is a natural response. Hormonal changes increase sexual urges that are amplified with the innate curiosity of teens. 

     Junior Ava Santana has observed that high school relationships reach a point where they switch to sexual intimacy.

     “They’ll be [in a relationship] with their boyfriend or their girlfriend for so long, and then something will happen, and they’ll have a sexual change.”

     From the media that they consume to the conversations in the hallways, sex is something that has become a staple for teenage relationships.

     “Hookup culture exists everywhere,” senior Jake Ly said, “It’s becoming normalized.” 

    Though intimacy is prevalent throughout teen relationships, Santana believes that the focus on lust will fade over time. 

     “I feel like it’s just a trend,” she said.

     Social media has helped facilitate this cultural shift in more ways than one. The algorithm is pushing more sexual content for its users to consume. Platforms like Snapchat give users the opportunity to message and send anything to anyone with ease. 

     “You can text someone, and you don’t have to see them every day,” Santana said.

     Experimenting with sex during the teen years is not unique to Gen-Z, but their early exposure to the internet is an influential factor. Gen-Z is the first generation to have everything be one Google search away, including constant access to pornography and other sexual content. Over 41% of children consumed some form of pornography in the last year, according to the National Institutes of Health.

     “I think people just view sex as something everyone [does],” Ly said, “[Everyone] watches porn, [but] people don’t really talk about it.”

     Exposure to sexual content in early developmental years can permanently alter a person’s mental state, as well as their perspective on sex. The National Institute of Health states that most adolescents who consume pornography at a young age experience anxiety and a lasting sense of self-guilt.

     “If you get introduced to porn at a young age, then you see sex [as] something that’s not love,”  the WAHS student said.

     During their relationship, sex was something that the students viewed as fun rather than a form of “love”. Their first date, the first time they said I love you, when they were asked to be “official,” all happened while having sex. Though these moments came from a place of love for their partner, for the student, intimacy felt surface level.

     Hypersexuality can lead to lasting effects on relationships and the dynamics within them. Ly believes that it “Ruins all their relationships because their [relationship] becomes [centered on] hooking up.” 

     It can overtake people’s intentions behind getting into each talking stage and getting with each person they date, creating an environment where “A lot of people look for lust and not love,” Santana said. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that [hooking up] could be hurting someone else.”

     For the WAHS student, their relationship left a lasting effect on their perception of their partner, and sex as a whole.

     “[It] has ruined me and [similar situations have] ruined other people.”