UPDATED: Oct. 2 at 6:48 p.m.

A blustery breeze swept through campus Wednesday night, pushing out the sticky air of the record-breaking heat wave in the last two weeks. Then this weekend, we all woke up to the fresh, crisp feeling of fall, announcing the annual cuffing season.

The top definition in Urban Dictionary describes cuffing season as: “During the fall and winter months people who would normally rather be single or promiscuous find themselves along with the rest of the world desiring to be ‘cuffed’ or tied down by a serious relationship. The cold weather and prolonged indoor activity causes singles to become lonely and desperate to be cuffed.”

The term arrived on the scene when it was posted on Urban Dictionary back in 2011. For those who never made the connection, “cuffed” refers to the metaphorical handcuffs that bind you and your partner together in an exclusive relationship.

So if Sam from sophomore year, who you may or may not have forgotten existed, hit you up for no reason on Friday night, you now have a hypothesis behind this mysterious and unexpected behavior.

Some of us may feel pressure to get “wifed-up.” But before you launch into your annual autumnal meltdown for the 10th year in a row, what we really need to talk about is how real cuffing season actually is. Are more college students increasingly tied down as the holidays approach?

Data from the online dating platform Zoosk shows the majority of users are in fact most active during July and August, initiating 17 percent more conversations and sending 21 percent more messages. This information contradicts the concept of cuffing season, which would most likely cause a statistically significant spike in messaging activity during cuffing preseason, September through early October.

On the flip side, the dating app Hinge published that out of a sample of 1,000 users, men were 15 percent more likely to crave a relationship during the wintertime, and women were 5 percent more likely.

And from the evolutionary psych perspective, there is an argument to be made here. I’m sure Neanderthals/early modern humans snuggled together with their person in order to stay warm way back when. But let’s be real: It’s 2017 and central heating is a thing.

Do with this data what you like. But dating apps are obviously the simplest way to get statistics on people’s romantic and sexual behaviors nowadays. Not a lot of people in our generation use them, but this information is skewed because it excludes the population of people who don’t use them.

At least through my extensive Google searches, there doesn’t seem to be any recent studies that don’t use dating platforms to determine what times of years people — and college students specifically — are most likely to pair up.

So in answering the question, “Does cuffing season exist at Syracuse University?”, the unsatisfying but most accurate answer is an empty “inconclusive.” Looks like we need more mandatory student surveys on the topic of relationships. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need answers.

You may be experiencing more of an anecdotally imagined phenomenon than a reality. And either way, being single can be just as much fun in the fall as the summer. “Halloweekend,” here you come.

Whether you’re seeking a seasonal friends-with-benefits situation or the temperature drop has truly cued your desire for a long-term romantic partner, the most important thing is to be honest with your hookup about what you’re looking to get out of the relationship and what your expectations are.

Alex Erdekian is a senior magazine journalism major and psychology minor. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her learning about different coffees while working at Karma Coffee Roasters or intensely searching WebMD for ironically unhealthy amounts of time. Reach her at aerdekia@syr.edu or on Twitter at @alexxe08.

This post has been updated with appropriate style.