I’ve quickly developed a reputation among The State News employees as being one of the only conservatives.

And naturally, I have conservative opinions concerning sex and relationships.

So during my first year at MSU, I’ve been put into an environment where I’ve seen sex treated as something almost meaningless. Especially here, where we’ve been voted the No. 1 school to get laid at by FiestaFrog.com.

Now, I’m fully aware that this column will be read as “look at this Catholic virgin telling people what they should do with their bodies,” and I understand that. Which is why I’m not going to argue that people should wait until they are married to have sex. Though I do believe in that from a moral standpoint, I recognize nobody here has any reason to listen to me.

What I will say is that sex isn’t something people should treat as meaningless. We’ve all read an endless number of columns talking about our “hookup culture,” and it reflects awfully on our society as a whole.

The way many people act on college campuses reminds me of a real-life version of the “American Pie” movies — a bunch of horny young adults not looking for any sort of relationship or meaningful connection, but sex completely isolated from it.

People simply objectify each other. When sex is treated as just an activity for pleasure and nothing more, the person you’re doing it with is irrelevant and it becomes two people selfishly using each other for instant gratification.

That’s if both people agree on the terms of a hookup. I think that’s wrong to begin with, but at least it’s two people with a clear idea of what they’re doing and what they want.

The saddest thing I’ve seen here is when some poor girl — and yes, it is generally a girl — equates sex with love. And thus, she rarely seems to figure out the guys she’d slept with only want one thing from her.

While my views on this come from what some would probably describe as a “medieval” religious worldview, I see people all too ready to get into arguments about sex, without defining what sex means or what its purpose is.

Is it just a physical release for pleasure? Is it purely for conceiving children? Is it something that can connect two people on a spiritual level? Is it an expression of physical love?

Because probably everyone has an opinion on this, it makes it a debate that is without question worth having.

I can’t control what people do, nor do I want to. But before seeking that moment of instant gratification, understand that sex shouldn’t just be for pleasure — it should be a meaningful connection between two people who care about each other.

Ignoring any religious marriage restrictions I believe in, I’d hope people could at least understand that.