It has been cuffing season for a couple weeks now, and for those of you who do not know what cuffing season is, it is the winter months during the holidays where people want to be tied down and in a serious relationship. This is a time to find someone to watch Christmas movies with, drink hot cocoa with, or snuggle up with next to the fire or every other mushy holiday date you could think of. Cuffing season has had a lot of popularity in the last couple years, especially on social media. At this time, you see cute pictures of couples all wrapped up in layers of jackets kissing in the snow with the caption “cuffing season.” But just because it has all this publicity does not mean it has a good reputation.

Many Plymouth State students do not support cuffing season, Brittney John a Junior here at school says “I think it’s just another way to put people down and try to invalidate the desire to not want to be alone.” Simply, because almost every family member at Christmas dinner asks the question “are you seeing anyone?” So by bringing someone home with you over the holidays seems to reduce the majority of personal questions asked. Also it allows to for you to have someone to suffer with, through Uncle Pete’s story of the war for the 70th time or Grandma’s awful fruit cake. But being alone should not drive your want for a relationship. Mark McCarthy a Senior here at Plymouth State says “A lot of people fall into cuffing someone during these months, but does that make the relationship actually real?” Which brings us to the next question, are you just dating someone to have for the holiday months or can you actually see a future with this person? Most people fall into the pressure of getting in a relationship during cuffing season because they do not want to be alone. But if you are just in a relationship just to say you are in one what is the point? It is basically just a prolonged heartbreak, not a relationship.