Ah, the college days. That time when we finally break free of our parents’ ever-watchful gaze and begin to spread our wings. College is a time to try a number of things, from new foods and friends to drinking and recreational drugs. But is it also a time to explore polyamory? One study suggests that might just be the case.
Open Relationships Are in Vogue
College students don’t seem to want to be tied down to any specifics, whether in their college major or choice of the person with whom they’re spending the majority of their time. According to a 2015 Avvo study (link: http://nakedlaw.avvo.com/divorce/half-of-american-men-not-opposed-to-being-in-an-open-relationship-avvo-study-finds.html), nearly half of college-aged Americans are amenable to the idea of being in an open relationship. And with many of this generation growing up with divorced and/or remarried parents, they don’t seem eager to marry themselves, either.
Open relationships give these Milennials the luxury to try out different people while enjoying the benefits of having a special someone in their lives. It’s the beginning of polyamory, which many older adults enjoy and is often associated with swinging. So does this mean that we should be looking forward to welcoming new, younger people into the folds of the lifestyle?
Polyamory Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Swinging
While the Avvo study did not implicitly ask about participants’ views on swinging, it did ask them about their thoughts on dating, marriage, and staying faithful. What we do know is that viewpoints toward open relationships change according to the age group in question. While 49% of the 18–23 group is not morally opposed to the idea of open relationships, 43% of the 24–32 group and a whopping 56% of the 33+ group share the same sentiment. Perhaps that slight decrease, following by a bigger increase, has to do with what is happening during that time period in our lives. In college, we are experimental; after graduation, we often look to settle down; and in our 30s, we begin to appreciate our independence—and some are even out of a failed marriage with an expanded worldview.
Could there be a possibility that the trend of being more open to polyamory will extend to a surge of people in the lifestyle? Certainly, that could be the case, but without a specific set of questions on the topic, it’s obviously hard to make that prediction.
Attitudes toward relationships, including dating and marriage, are changing. People aren’t quite as quick to walk down the aisle as they were just half a century ago, and that may mean that the younger generation has had their eyes opened to a variety of possibilities to be happy in relationships. Whether or not we can look forward to a new generation of swingers is yet to be seen.
