As someone who has grown up in the modern, iPod laden-age, I understand how technology is a major factor in romantic relationships that are formed today.

With anyone I've dated, texting has been a big aspect in the progression of our relationship. My mom met her current boyfriend on Match.com and I'm a firm believer that two people aren't really dating until it's "Facebook official." So, I don't get too fired up when people say that they rely a lot on their laptops and cell phones to keep a relationship going.

But there is one phenomenon that really does push my buttons when it comes to technological relationships: sexting. According to urbandictionary.com, sexting is "the act of text messaging someone in the hopes of having a sexual encounter with them later; initially casual, transitioning into highly suggestive and even sexually explicit."

Another definition adds that these messages can sometimes include evocative photos. Sexting has been in the news for a few years now, and it seems that most of the articles I've read about it seems to involve teens and preteens, and I wrote off the concept as something that never really involved my generation, and as something that immature high schoolers did to get the attention of the guy or girl they considered to be the major hottie of the month.

But over Christmas break, I was chatting with three of my high school girlfriends and the topic of sexting came up. I made some sort of comment about how questionable I found it, and that how surprising it would be to me if I found out that people our age did it.

Based on the expression I received back, it seemed pretty obvious to me that my assumptions were wrong. Through our discussion, I found out that all of my friends have tried sexting at one point or another, and I apparently live in the Stone Age.

I think the reason I was so shocked about my 20 and 21-year-old friends admitting their experimental relationship with sexting is the fact that I view the whole practice as something pretty immature. Sending your boyfriend or girlfriend a text that's suggestive is one thing, but firing a sexually-driven picture message to someone you don't know too well is something that I never saw supposedly mature adults doing in their spare time.

According to a Sex and Tech survey conducted in 2008 by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 32 percent of young adults between the ages of 20 and 26 surveyed had sent a "nude or semi-nude photo or video" to someone else.

Although 79 percent of these "sexts" were sent to a boyfriend or girlfriend, but a good amount, 26 percent, were sent to people the senders wanted to "date or hook up with," while 20 percent sent messages to someone they "had a crush on."

I'm sorry - a fifth of people who sext send messages to people they have a crush on? Even more send naked pictures of themselves to people who they potentially want to date?

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like if you're sending pictures that are basically pornographic to someone you are crushing on and want to go on a date with, the person in question is most likely going to assume that night together will end in one of your beds.

Knowing who people send these messages to, why exactly do people do it? A whopping 80 percent of females age 20-26 stated that they sext in order to "keep a guy's attention," 66 percent sexted in order to get a guy to like them.

Again, maybe it's just me, but if you have to send a guy sexual picture messages in order to keep a guy's attention, he either has major ADD when it comes to girls or you may want to reevaluate the type of dude you're dating. The same goes for those who sext so that their male romantic interest will like them - if a guy can't appreciate you with your clothes on, he's probably not worth the worry.

So here's the question I have for the females of our generation: when did we become so desperate for male attention that we had to turn to soliciting ourselves via explicit text messages? What happened to the good old days of getting to know someone over dinner and a movie instead of through pictures that could probably be featured in the upcoming issue of "Playboy"?

So many girls want to know why guys don't respect them. But it seems to me that this question is absolutely not warranted unless females in their early twenties start respecting themselves.