When Neil Sedaka sang the hit song “Breaking up is hard to do” in 1962, he probably wasn’t thinking of the romantic journeys of college students.
In the 60’s people didn’t have Facebook, cell phones or text messaging to communicate 24/7. Breaking up was much harder to do.
People either broke up with someone face to face, by a letter or by telephone.
Now, there are a multitude of different ways to break someone’s heart.
As another Valentine’s Day approaches, and the scent of roses and chocolate is apparent, it is time to reflect on our past loves – some good and some bad.
Some people can say they broke it off easy. We all have heard, “It’s not you; it’s me,” or “I don’t have the same feelings for you as I used to.”
But what about those ridiculous reasons that leave you speechless?
As the research at UTSA shows, and surely many other colleges in the country, breaking up is easy to do, especially when you have a cell phone.
Sophomore English major Sierra Nevada said that two of her past boyfriends have given lame excuses for breaking up.
“One of my exes said that he was too mature for me, but he told me that through a text. Real mature. Another ex sent me a text saying that he didn’t want to be in a long-distance relationship, but he only lived 30 minutes away,” said Nevada.
“The worst way you can break up with someone is by text. It’s just stupid,” senior English major Lauren Payne said.
If lovers aren’t breaking up with someone over a text, it seems that they are doing it by a phone call.
Sometimes break ups can get messy.
Senior sociology major Rickey Lowe said that he has had to deal with karma when he broke up with one of his past girlfriends.
“I broke up with a girlfriend on the phone while the girl I cheated on her with was on the other line,” Lowe said.
Other times, Murphey’s law interferes – whatever could go wrong does.
“I broke up with my girlfriend on the phone and thought I hung up. I started talking about her to a friend next to me, and then I realized she hadn’t hung up yet,” English graduate student Matt Lumbatis said. “Needless to say, she was pissed and it was officially over.”
Surprisingly, some students said they have broken up face-to-face – just like the 1960’s.
“I told my boyfriend that I didn’t want to be with him anymore because I felt he was too good for me,” freshman business major Jamie Moore said. “That was total crap, but I didn’t know what to say.”
But freshman undeclared major Justin Simms said that breaking up has never been a big deal for him.
“If I don’t want to be with a girl anymore, I just make up a dumb excuse. Once I told an ex that I was moving, and we wouldn’t be able to see each other anymore. It worked, for a while!” Simms said.
Whether it’s a good excuse or bad, in most cases, breaking up sucks and is hard to do.